Australia's Alja Tomljanovic had an extraordinary on-court blow-up with opponent Jelena Ostapenko while winning through to the fourth round of Wimbledon.
Tomljanovic beat former French Open champion Ostapenko 4-6 6-4 6-2, after a running battle over medical timeouts taken by the Latvian player.
Tomljanovic had lost the first set and was down 0-2 in the second when she launched an inspired comeback. A run of seven consecutive games had her up 4-0 in the final set.
Then Ostapenko, having displayed no signs of physical discomfort, claimed an abdominal injury and requested a medical timeout. "I cannot continue, I have pain," she told the chair umpire.
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Tomljanovic was furious at the apparent act of gamesmanship.
"You know she's lying, right? We all know," she said, while calling for the supervisor.
"You know you can also make your own call and take your own view on this situation?
"Are you taking into any consideration that she looked fine for an hour and 30, and now there's an acute injury?"
https://twitter.com/BenRothenberg/status/1411315105736896512?s=20Ostapenko broke Tomljanovic's serve after returning from her lengthy break but the Aussie willed her way to victory. Then things turned nasty at the post-match handshake.
"If you think I'm faking, you can talk to the physio," Ostapenko said.
Tomljanovic replied: "I hope you feel better."
Ostapenko, while walking away: "Your behaviour is terrible, terrible.
Tomljanovic: "You're the one to talk."
Ostapenko: "You have zero respect, yes?"
Tomljanovic: "Honestly, you're one to talk."
Ostapenko: "What? So bad, so bad. The worst player on the tour."
Tomljanovic faces teenage British wildcard Emma Raducanu in the fourth round and could play Aussie world No.1 Ash Barty in the quarter-finals.
Tomljanovic secured her best result at Wimbledon and her equal-best result at a Grand Slam by reaching the final 16. The Aussie is currently ranked world No.75 but has displayed flashes of being much higher calibre.
She did not ease-up on Ostapenko while speaking post-match.
"She can say she was injured. I don't think she was," said Tomljanovic. "There was nothing wrong with her the whole match, but then why on 4-0 she calls it? So I think that that's a clear reason that she just wanted to get me off my game.
"Then to top it all off, for her to call me disrespectful at the end of the match is laughable.
"I think it's disgraceful behaviour from someone that is a Slam champion, because kids look at her and they see that? I'm sorry, if she was injured, she could have gone about it in a way better way.
"The fact that she did it at 4-0 today when I was about to serve, that's disrespectful. I'm just honestly tired of it. I'm tired of it happening and seeing it happen. We can do better than that."
Yet Ostapenko was incensed by the accusations.
"I think it was very disrespectful what she did. I mean, how can you say 'liar' or something if you know zero about my injury," she said.
"You cannot say that. In front of everybody, call me liar? I don't think it's respectful from her side.
"So that's what I said, 'You are a very bad player because of this behaviour'. That's it. You are winning, but it does not mean you can do everything you want."
Ostapenko insisted that she would have won had she been fit.
"I think my level today was not good after the first set, because if I played at least 50 per cent I would have beaten her," she said.
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from WWOS https://wwos.nine.com.au/tennis/wimbledon-2021-results-ajla-tomljanovic-beats-jelena-ostapenko-argument-over-medical-timeouts/cf7c89ea-80b1-4474-8526-1f0685bdeeda
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