In the world of professional tennis, the foreboding presence of racism as a social structure and its long-lasting impact is in play. Even in the pristine courts of the Billie Jean King Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows at the US Open, racism reared its ugly head and targeted Taylor Townsend and her apologetic Blackness.

Instead of celebrating her significant victory, as she was entitled to after defeating Jelena Ostapenko in a hotly contested battle, Townsend, a Black woman, had to defend herself against claims rooted in racism.

The incident stems from her opponent Ostapenko, full of Karen energy and white privilege, demanding that Townsend apologize for a net cord shot that helped her win a crucial point in the match. Ostapenko also claimed that Townsend broke an unwritten rule of tennis etiquette by starting her pre-match warm-up at the net instead of from the baseline.

Following Townsend’s win, she met Ostapenko for the customary handshake at the end of the match, and the two players stood on the court exchanging words. According to Townsend, Ostapenko told her she had "no class" and "no education" and challenged her to a rematch "outside of the US.”

In response and in the spirit of Althea Gibson, who is being celebrated for breaking color barriers 75 years ago, Townsend said in a post-match interview that she told Ostapenko to take the “L" and noted that she had already defeated her in another country, Canada.

Writing a long post on her Instagram stories, Ostapenko wrote that Townsend's behavior was "very disrespectful" and she had "never been racist in [her] life.”

Maybe Ostapenko, a Lativian woman, doesn’t know that claiming a Black woman has “no class” and “no education” is rooted in historical racism that concludes that Black women have a history of being loud and “ghetto.” This idea that somehow Ostapenko was the gatekeeper of unwritten rules of tennis etiquette is just another Karen-esque attempt to hide what was really spurning Ostapenko this day: She lost to a Black woman who was unapologetic in her dominance and unafraid of her opponent who has a history of throwing tantrums once she loses. 

Ostapenko previously received fines for “unsportsmanlike conduct” for throwing water bottles after a loss to Tatjana Maria in 2022. 

But one does not need to be a card-carrying racist to extrapolate the tropes and stereotypical ideologies that Ostapenko reached for in her reported comments after the match. The malleability of racism allows it to mutate and take shape in the form of public policy and as performance art, i.e., when you get beat down by a Black woman in front of the world and hurling racial insults is your only comeback. It's a movie that Black people, particularly Black women, have seen so many times that they have the ending credits memorized.

As expected, during her post-match press conference, Townsend stood on business and on her Black womanhood.

"I'm very proud as a Black woman being out here representing myself and representing us and our culture,” Townsend said. “I make sure that I do everything that I can to be the best representation possible every time that I step on the court and even off the court.”

With all that controversy that has ensued over the incident and everyone who will chime in to give their take on it, there’s one thing we all can agree on: Townsend has advanced in the tournament while Ostapenko is going home.