Tennis
U.S. Open
FLUSHING MEADOWS, N.Y. — Post-match speeches for the losers in finals. A fiendish scoring system. At-times ambiguous rules.
Tennis feels designed to cause irritation and aggravation like few other sports, and the handshake at the end of a match is its apex. Two elite athletes, who have spent the previous few hours on a small rectangular battlefield with tensions gradually ratcheting up, are then provided with the perfect incubator for all of those simmering resentments, while being asked to politely say “well done”.
Wednesday at the U.S. Open, Jelena Ostapenko, the tennis player most synonymous with fractious handshakes, furiously confronted Taylor Townsend at the end of their second-round match. Ostapenko, who had just been beaten 7-5, 6-1, told Townsend she should have said sorry for a shot that clipped the top of the net but stayed in play, known as a net cord.
