Aryna Sabalenka suggests personal issues led to Jelena Ostapenko US Open meltdown

NEW YORK—Aryna Sabalenka revealed she spoke with Jelena Ostapenko in the immediate aftermath of the No. 25 seed’s dramatic second-round crash out to Taylor Townsend at the 2025 US Open.

“During our conversation, I didn't know what happened,” the world No. 1 said in answer to a question from *Bounces* following her second-round victory over Polina Kudermetova.

What happened: Ostapenko castigated a victorious Townsend for failing to acknowledge a lucky netcord in the first set of the latter’s 7-5, 6-1 victory, accusing Townsend of having “no class and no education” before getting booed off a packed Court 11 on Wednesday.

“Well, I have to say that she's nice,” said Sabalenka. “You know, she just sometimes can lose control. She has some things in life to face and some struggles. I was just trying to help her to…face it more in mature way, but I was just trying to help her to settle down and kind of, like…just was someone she could speak to and just let it go.”

Sabalenka herself suffered an emotional lapse when she fell in the final of Roland Garros to Coco Gauff, later apologizing for post-match press comments that disparaged Gauff’s play.

“You know, I think she just sometimes can just lose control over her emotions, which [is] pretty tough,” Sabalenka continued. “I really hope that one day she will figure herself and she will handle it much better.”

Read more: Ostapenko comments “came from an ugly place”

Asked to clarify whether she believed Ostapenko was going through personal issues, Sabalenka said:

I think so, yeah. Sometimes when you struggle with some things in life, it of course, can reflect your tennis career, and on court you're more unstable, and you can lose control. You just don't understand what's going on in the moment.

I'm pretty sure, looking back, she's not happy with her behavior.

Ostapenko was not immediately apologetic on social media, continuing to insist in since-deleted Instagram stories that Townsend owed her an apology for the netcord shot, adding that Townsend’s preference to begin her pre-match warm-up broke an unwritten tennis rule.

“Situations like that motivate me to work even harder,” wrote Ostapenko, who will be back on court Thursday for her first round of women’s doubles with Barbora Krejcikova against No. 11 seeds Timea Babos and Luisa Stefani.