Naomi Osaka Calls Jelena Ostapenko’s Comments to Taylor Townsend ‘One of the Worst Things You Can Say to a Black Tennis Player’

Ostapenko’s gripe started with etiquette—apologies on net cords, handshake energy, frustration in the moment. Everyone knows New York amplifies everything.

But the phrasing traveled beyond etiquette into character judgment. That’s the pivot Osaka highlighted: critique a decision or a point, not the person’s standing or intelligence.