Jelena Ostapenko was involved in a furious on-court confrontation with Taylor Townsend after being dumped out of the US Open by the unseeded American on Wednesday.

Latvian 25th seed Ostapenko unleashed some angry verbal volleys at Townsend following her 5-7, 1-6 second-round defeat. Townsend later revealed that Ostapenko had accused her of lacking ‘class’ during her tirade. “She told me I have no education, no class, and to see what happens if we play each other outside of the US. I didn’t back down because you’re not going to insult me, especially after I carried myself a certain type of way with nothing but respect. If I show respect to you, I expect respect as well,” said Townsend.

Ostapenko said in a post on Instagram that she had been angered by Townsend’s failure to acknowledge a net cord in her favour during the match. The 28-year-old also accused Townsend of breaching etiquette by starting her pre-match warm-up at the net.