Wimbledon row erupts between tennis bad girls

A controversy erupted at Wimbledon between notorious bad girls Jelena Ostapenko and Laura Siegemund in a row over a time violation.

In the deciding tie-break of the mixed doubles match, Siegemund was given a time violation by the umpire Jonas Welte with the score 7-7, before going on to lose the match alongside partner Édouard Roger-Vasselin.

Siegemund reacted to the decision by tossing the ball away after forfeiting her first serve, before then missing her second serve long and losing the point.

Both Siegemund and Roger-Vasselin then confronted the umpire to contest the decision, and both received a warning. Siegemund argued that the umpire had failed to penalise opponent Ostapenko and called the decision “unbelievable”.

Siegemund said: “Every time in a big moment she throws 18 times the ball up, and that’s nothing, and one time I’m over the time and it’s a big point and you give me it [the time violation], it’s unbelievable. She did it and you did nothing.”

Ostapenko and her partner, Marcelo Arévalo, went on to win the match shortly after the point, but the dispute did not end.

There was so little love lost between Ostapenko and Siegemund that they refused to shake hands after the match, although the Latvian did shake hands with Roger-Vasselin at the conclusion of the contest.

“If she was late every time you would have told her ‘come on Laura you’re a little bit late’,” Roger-Vasselin said to umpire Welte, before adding it was a “terrible move”.

“Exactly but that wasn’t the case,” said Welte, before telling the players who lost the match to talk about it off the court.

‘She has to learn how to lose’

Siegemund appeared to then storm off court while Ostapenko, having celebrated the victory, returned to enter the dispute. “Finally someone is not afraid to do that when she is taking like two minutes between the serves and before the serves. Everyone knows this,” Ostapenko told Roger-Vasselin, before adding that Siegemund has to “learn how to lose”.

The pair then continued to talk about the decision with Ostapenko calling out the time taken by Siegemund in every match that she plays, rather than the specific contest at SW19, and saying that the German’s behaviour was also “not very nice”.

Both women are known for their unsavoury antics. It was only last year that Ostapenko denied being racist after she accused American tennis player Taylor Townsend of having “no class” while criticising her education.

In 2021, Ajla Tomljanovic was convinced Ostapenko was faking an injury when she requested a medical timeout when the Australian was about to serve.

She was also fined and booed off the court, again at Wimbledon, for throwing a water bottle at a chair after a loss to Tatjana Maria in 2022.

There was also an exchange with Aryna Sabalenka last year, another with Iga Swiatek, and a protest at Wimbledon when she lifted up her skirt to reveal dark green shorts, presumably to make a point about the dress code.

Siegemund was criticised for her delaying tactics earlier this year during a gruelling match against Alexandra Eala, who raised concerns with the umpire.

In 2023, Siegemund was accused by American Coco Gauff of deliberately time-wasting to run down her service clock at the US Open, while saying the German’s supporters had “no respect” after cheering her faults and disrupting her serve.