India, Aug. 28 -- It has been a dramatic and heated start to this year's US Open championships: after the remarkable scenes between Benjamin Bonzi and Daniil Medvedev on the men's half of the tournament, a loud verbal spat escalated into a big on-court fight between Latvian 25-seed Jelena Ostapenko and American player Taylor Townsend in their second round contest on Wednesday.

After Townsend had eliminated Ostapenko from the tournament with an emphatic 7-5 6-1 victory, things turned ugly as the pair swapped words at the net during the handshake. The tensions boiled over as they began an argument, only ended by Townsend walking away to celebrate her win - and subsequently inciting the home crowd by pointing towards her opponent and trying...