Ben Shelton & Frances Tiafoe give their takes as racism row sparks off at US Open after Taylor Townsend-Jelena Ostapenko controversy

The current ATP World No. 6 and No. 17 American stars, Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe, have shared their thoughts on the on-court confrontation involving the USA's Taylor Townsend and the Latvian player, Jelena Ostapenko. Both Shelton and Tiafoe are currently competing in the singles category at the US Open.

The current World No. 1 in women's doubles, Ben Shelton's partner for the US Open mixed doubles, Taylor Townsend, faced former World No. 5 Jelena Ostapenko in her second round at the 2025 US Open. Tension rose between the players when a net cord point went with Townsend, who eventually clinched the win.

After having a clipped handshake, Ostapenko criticized Townsend for not apologizing for the net cord point. This led to a confrontation between the players, with the Latvian mentioning that Townsend had "no education, no class." The incident soon took the media by storm and sparked a racism row. In their recent post-game interviews, both Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton added their thoughts regarding the confrontation.

The winner of the 2025 Canadian Open, Ben Shelton, mentioned (via US Open on YouTube),

"Not the smartest thing to say to an American in New York City, but she handled her business. Always going to back Taylor...We didn't do what we wanted to do in the mix. So, she definitely making up for it and like she said after the match, she spoke with a racket and just happy to see her winning. Yeah, kind of speaks for itself, right? Crazy crazy statement." (1:49 onwards)

Whereas, Tiafoe added,

"She's a laugh one. You can sit there and laugh at that. I never think it needs to go there. No reason for it. I can't speak too much to it, but I don't like it. If you lost, you lost. Keep it pushing, but I got to see the video. I don't know what really happened. Keep it about tennis competing. Shout out Taylor, man. There you go." [via US Open on YouTube, 2:09 onwards]

At the 2025 US Open mixed doubles, Ben Shelton and Townsend reached the quarterfinal round, whereas Frances Tiafoe and Madison Keys faced defeat in the round of 16.

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Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe, and Taylor Townsend advance in their US Open singles tournament run

The winners of three ATP titles, Shelton and Frances Tiafoe, along with Taylor Townsend, have reached their respective third rounds at the prestigious US Open in the singles category.

Shelton has defeated Ignacio Buse and Pablo Carreno Busta and will next face Adrian Mannarino. On the other hand, Tiafoe defeated Yoshihito Nishioka and Martin Damm Jr. in the initial rounds and will next face Jan-Lennard Struff.

Townsend, who has won ten doubles titles, battled Antonia Ruzic and Ostapenko to reach the third round, where she will face the young Russian star, Mirra Andreeva.