Jelena Ostapenko Speaks Out Against Taxi Driver’s “Aggressive” Behavior

It seems riding in a cab hasn’t been the most pleasurable experience for Jelena Ostapenko. The former French Open champion recently had an uncomfortable encounter with a cab driver and shared the incident on social media. She claimed the person in question was behaved harshly and called the company out for their unprofessionalism.

“Wow I called a taxi and after request from @bolt.latvia the driver to move the seat forward (there was almost no room for legs). He said If you don’t like something, call another cab and refuse to slide the driver’s seat,” shared Ostapenko on her Instagram story. “Please @bolt_latvia to react to this situation, because this is not the first time the driver is not kind and aggressive”.

One would expect a company with Bolt’s profile to take notice of Ostapenko’s complaint and take measures to address it, as Latvia is one of the earliest markets the brand targeted. Entering the Latvian market in 2014, the company (which was then known as Taxify) increased its influence and tapped into a larger customer base, adding to its home base of Estonia. That early expansion move worked as the company had diversified into food delivery and cab-sharing services as well.

However, despite her skirmish with the cab driver, Ostapenko was not letting the incident cloud her day. The former Grand Slam champion shared pictures on Instagram from her visit to the Laima Rendezvous Jurmala, an annual pop concert held in Latvia. The WTA Pro even shared glimpses of getting her dance moves in shape so she could dance to the tunes at the Dzintari Concert Hall festival.

Ostapenko’s brief confrontation with her cab driver is in line with what the Latvian player brings to the court, where she has had more than her share of such encounters with opponents.

Jelena Ostapenko Is Known for Her On-Court Confrontations

If one is along for the Jelena Ostapenko ride on Tour, frosty handshakes, blowups at the net, and verbal jibes with opponents are par for the course. It came to the fore at this year’s Wimbledon, when the Latvian was playing mixed doubles with Marcelo Arevalo and got into a bit of a verbal confrontation with Laura Siegemund on the opposite team.

The German was given a penalty for a time violation at a crucial point of the match, to which she pointed out that Ostapenko had been skirting the regulations throughout the match by bouncing the ball one too many times. In classic Ostapenko fashion, she asked Siegemund, “to learn to lose better”, after she and Arevalo had taken the victory.

Even in the final, Ostapenko was flustered as she got her serve broken and was on the verge of one of her classic meltdowns, but the presence of a veteran like Arevalo helped her as the duo clinched the mixed doubles title. Wimbledon has seen more Ostapenko drama in 2021 as well, when she and Ajla Tomljanovic had a confrontation at the net, with the Australian player accusing the Latvian of faking an injury to halt the former’s momentum in the third set, to which Ostapenko had one or two words to say.

Over the years, the former French Open champion has fared better on the doubles court compared to the singles, a trend that has continued this season for Ostapenko as well. She has a 21-15 win-loss record in singles this season, with a couple of semifinal runs in Qatar and Eastbourne. On the doubles court, she won the title in Brisbane with Su-wei-Hsieh and reached the final in Qatar as well, before she also had a runner-up finish in Stuttgart along with Zhang Shuai.

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