Taylor Townsend is a decorated doubles competitor in the world of tennis. In recent years, she has won two Grand Slam doubles titles at Wimbledon and the Australian Open. Unequivocally, she is talented and is now making her way up the singles ranks. This past Wednesday saw her defeat of Latvian Jelena Ostapenko. In an initial show of sportsmanship after their match, Ostapenko was seen spewing vitriolic and implied racist remarks to Townsend. A part of her diatribe included her telling the 2025 Australian Open champion that she was uneducated. When will they learn, that sour grapes can lead to their empty pockets?

Keep your words soft and sweet

In a society that clamors for us to separate sports and politics, racist microaggressions will never allow for that to happen. We’ve seen similar conduct after this year’s French Open between Coco Gauff and Aryna Sabalenka. Although much of Sabalenka’s snide commentary after her loss was based on Gauff’s ability, it felt like there were racial undertones. In the case between Townsend and Ostapenko, there were overt racist tones that we cannot allow to just fly.

If you remember in the wake of the Gauff and Sabalenka issue, they eventually called a truce. Apologies were made, and in contemporary 2025 fashion, the two competitors did a TikTok dance to punctuate their newly found peace. Now I can in no way prove how genuine any of this was. In fact, for the cleansing of our society, I hope that it was all very genuine. But to put it simply, racism in sports, especially today, just isn’t good business. In New York City, Sabalenka became public enemy number one. She couldn’t afford for that to happen too early in her career trajectory. So a truce was beneficial for her in more ways than one.

The game within the game

By virtue of this, her business doesn’t have to suffer, as she is on the digital cover of Boardroom magazine currently. If she were labeled solely as a sore loser with racist tendencies, I doubt that this would be the case. That’s what’s at stake here for Ostapenko as well. No longer are you able to continue driving revenue for anyone with this abhorrent conduct.

If we turn our attention to Townsend, what she was forced to endure on a grand stage was unfortunate. Because let’s be clear, all of what Ostapenko said were fighting words. If she had said all of this at Flushing Meadows Park instead, I have no doubts she would’ve been eating some hands. Talk about a strong serve. One may wonder, how did we take commentary about one’s education as racist? Well there are a few reasons. For one, the Latvian competitor was seeking to belittle the woman who beat her. She sought to bring her down to size in her eyes by calling her uneducated.

Furthermore, her commentary was so displaced. There’s nothing about a tennis match meant to measure your mental acuity. She was looking to score with a verbal low blow. But it just can’t work that way. She just became even more of a loser. All the while, the 2024 Wimbledon doubles champ had to remain poised and controlled. She already knew that if she fought fire with fire, it would look worse on her. Is that fair? Hell no, but we know the play, and she averted it.

The cultural significance of elitist sports

The elitist nature of sports like golf and tennis are such a grand social experiment. It’s a convergence of race and culture that isn’t seen as much on a national level. But we understand the sacrifice that goes into getting young Black children involved in both of those worlds. From club memberships to lessons and fees for tournaments, it’s no joke. So best believe that our antennas are always up. We’re ready for smoke at the slightest scent of it.

In instances like these, I know that fines can sometimes be levied. But it may be time to explore harsher punishments for competitors’ commentary when they can become harmful to the other. I wouldn’t be mad at a form of suspension for instance. Clearly, white competitors have yet to truly grasp that we can, and will get them up out of here, by any means necessary. And as Townsend moved on, it let Ostapenko sit with that stinky stench of being a loser, wallowing in the agony of defeat.