Jelena Ostapenko was involved in a bitter row in Abu Dhabi after being branded ‘fake and disrespectful’ by her opponent during a women’s doubles match on the WTA Tour.

The Latvian star, 27, was playing alongside her partner Ellen Perez against Timea Babos and Nicole Melichar-Martinez in the quarter-finals of the Abu Dhabi Open, a WTA 500 event, when tempers flared.

As the players switched sides by the chairs, Babos and Melichar-Martinez were set to walk back onto the court before Ostapenko appeared to move ahead of them.

Babos and Melichar-Martinez were forced to stop abruptly in their tracks, with the former making a verbal comment towards world No.15 Ostapenko.

But she stood her ground, snapping back with a remark of her own in a tense verbal exchange, which set an awkward tone for the rest of the match.

The altercation was not captured on TV or caught by commentators working the match, but the spat between the quartet continued long after the match had finished.

In the hours following the clash, Babos made a cryptic comment in an Instagram post – appearing to take a swipe at Ostapenko for purportedly showing a lack of respect.

“Some players are just sooo fake and disrespectful,” the Romanian said.

“I don’t care how good they are or how well they hit the ball; they just have to have respect and manners.”

While Ostapenko declined to respond to those comments, Perez suggested Babos may have overreacted after giving her account of what happened on court.

Responding to a fan’s question on X, the Australian wrote: “On one of the changeovers, we got up to switch sides, and Niki and Timea were about to go first, and [Jelena Ostapenko] went, and I guess it made Timea stop and wait.

“As we were switching sides, Timea said, ‘Yeah, you’re welcome’.

“Then from there, Jelena was fired up with ‘C’mons.’ That’s all, honestly [woman shrugging emoji].”

It’s not the first time that Ostapenko has courted controversy for her conduct on the court.

At the Brisbane International event in January last year, the 2017 French Open winner threatened to have an umpire banned from officating her matches after bowing out in straight sets to Marie Bouzkova.

However, she managed to channel her frustration in the Middle East into a positive, as Ostapenko and Perez kept their cool and secured the bragging rights with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over their opponents.

The pair then breezed past Olivia Nicholls and Olivia Gadecki 6-1, 6-4 to set up an enticing final against No.4 seeds Zhang Shuai and Kristina Mladenovic on Saturday.