Jelena Ostapenko recently had one of her outbursts in a long time at the 2024 Brisbane International, but tennis fans were not impressed.
Ostapenko is known as a somewhat fiery player when things go wrong. It largely depends on how you look at it, but there is a reason she's never won the sportsmanship award.
She often has many over-the-top reactions when she misses a shot or when the technology shows that her ball was wide, among many other things.
Quite often, she also likes to complain, and the umpires tend to be the focus of that because, well, they call the score. During her most recent match at the Brisbane International, Ostpaenko was not thrilled with how the umpire handled one specific situation.
Towards the end of the match, a visibly upset Ostapenko ranted towards the umpire and blamed her for losing a point when she thought that the ball that her opponent, Victoria Azarenka, hit, bounced twice.
It wasn't a pretty sight, and many tennis fans weren't really impressed with Ostapenko's behavior either. They took to social media platform X to voice their thoughts on the rather uncomfortable situation. One fan simply wrote that she should have been disqualified on the spot.
"Unsportsmanlike conduct. She should’ve been disqualified on the spot."
Another reacted and wondered why federations allow umpires to be abused in such a way. It's a pretty good question because generally, the players just rant away as umpires are expected to nod and smile through that. Some stick up for themselves, but more often than not, they just take it.
"I don't understand why Federations left the referees get abused liked that."
Another one pointed out that while Ostapenko can sometimes be funny with her theatrics, this specific outburst was rude and out of line. No lies were told with that one.
"Penko can be funny sometimes but that’s just rude! Girl get it together."