Naomi Osaka has branded Jelena Ostapenko’s “classless” and “uneducated” insults towards Taylor Townsend “terrible” as the US Open racism rumbles on.
🗣️ “I mean it’s really difficult to say. I think obviously it’s one of the worst things you can say to a black tennis player in a majority white sport.
“And granted, I know Taylor and I know how hard she’s worked and I know how smart she is, so she’s the furthest thing from uneducated or anything like that.
“But if you’re like genuinely asking me about the history of Ostapenko, I don’t think that’s the craziest thing she’s said. I’m going to be honest. I think it’s ill timing and the worst person you could have ever said it to. And I don’t know if she knows the history of it in America.
“But I know she’s never going to say that ever again in her life. I mean it was just terrible. Like that’s just really bad.”