Jelena Ostapenko threatens chair umpire over line call disagreement at Italian Open

Jelena Ostapenko had a major disagreement over a line call with chair umpire Marija Cicak during her third-round victory over Daria Kasatkina on Monday, May 15. The Latvian ace even threatened the umpire by saying she would never referee any of her matches again.

Jelena Ostapenko reached the quarterfinals of the Italian Open for the third time in her career by defeating eighth-seed Daria Kasatkina 6-4, 4-6, 6-0. The 2017 French Open champion prevailed in 1 hour and 58 minutes and extended her head-to-head lead over Kasatkina to 5-2.

The World No. 20 came back from a break down twice in the first set to take it 6-4. During the second set, Ostapenko challenged a line call at 2-4, 15-30 down on her serve. Umpire Marija Cicak got down from her chair to check the mark and declared it was in.

The Latvian was unconvinced and refused to accept the decision when Cicak called her to show her the mark. She wanted to refer the decision to higher authorities, but Cicak informed her they couldn’t help with the chair umpire’s decision.

“They cannot help you with my decision. They can explain it to you later,” said Cicak.

Furious at the situation, Ostapenko lashed out at the chair umpire.

“You will never be at another one of my matches," the 25-year-old said as she returned to the baseline.

Ostapenko lost that second set as she failed to break Kasatkina’s serve. However, she steamrolled her opponent in the third, serving a bagel and booking a place in the 2023 Italian Open quarterfinals.

The Latvian will face Paola Badosa or Karolina Muchova for a place in the semifinals.

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Jelena Ostapenko’s infamous history with line calls

Jelena Ostapenko was unhappy with Hawk-eye at AO

Jelena Ostapenko has a history of arguments with the chair umpires over line calls, be it with linespeople or Hawk-eye technology. At the 2023 Australian Open, the Latvian was vocal about her dissatisfaction with the Hawk-eye calls.

"I'm not really happy with the system they are using. But I cannot do anything about it," Ostapenko said at the Australian Open.

"First of all, they are really late sometimes. You already hit the ball, and then you hear 'Out,' which is normally not the way it is with the line umpires. And second of all, some balls were [a lot out] not a little out. They were a bit out and they were not called," she added.

Many clay-court tournaments, like the Italian Open, do not have electronic calling and instead rely on linespeople and chair umpires. Ostapenko is also infamous for challenging line calls made by umpires.

Earlier this year, ahead of Jelena Ostapenko's first-round match against Emma Raducanu at the 2023 Stuttgart Open, Ons Jabeur had joked about having popcorn ready to watch the Latvian repeatedly ask for the referee.