By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Friday July 2, 2021
There was massive drama on Court No.15 on Saturday at Wimbledon, and the bad blood between Ajla Tomljanovic and Jelena Ostapenko spilled over into the press room.
It all started in the third set of Tomljanovic’s 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 victory over Ostapenko, when the Latvian took a medical timeout down 4-0 in set three.
Tomljanovic immediately protested and accused Ostapenko of gamesmanship while Ostapenko waited at her chair for the medical staff to arrive.
“You know she’s lying,” Tomljanovic said.
After the Aussie finished off the match to earn her first ever trip to the second week at Wimbledon, she had words with Ostapenko at the net.
After the contest Ostapenko told her side of the story.
“First of all, she cannot say anything because she knows zero about my injury. She doesn't know anything, first of all,” she said, adding: “And second of all, in my opinion it was very, very disrespectful from her side, because every single player who is playing tennis or any other sports can get injured. So she cannot say anything unless she knows anything from the physios or from the doctor.”
And this was Tomljanovic’s reply:
“First of all, my feelings towards winning exceeds any drama that happened, because for me it's a huge moment in my career, especially with everything that I have been through. I'm extremely happy to be in the fourth round for the first time, especially here in Wimbledon,” she said. “As far as she goes, look, I have been in situations where players use that medical timeout to get their opponent off, usually when they are losing badly and when it's, like, the match was getting closer to the end. She can say she was injured. I don't think she was. There was nothing wrong with her the whole match, but then why on 4-0 she calls it?” Tomljanovic continued, expressing her logic.
“I think that that's a clear reason that she just wanted to get me off my game,” she said. “Usually if you are dealing with an injury, at least this is how I go about it, you maybe say, Hey, can you call the physio on the next changeover? You don't just go and sit down when your opponent is about to serve to go up 5-Love potentially.”
The Aussie moves through to face Emma Raducanu of Great Britain in the round of 16.