Jelena Ostapenko fumes after Wimbledon defeat and brands Tatjana Maria ‘lucky’

Sore loser Jelena Ostapenko was booed off court at Wimbledon and claimed opponent Tatjana Maria was “lucky” after her fourth-round defeat.

Latvian Ostapenko, a former French Open champion, threw a water bottle at her chair which fell over as she stormed away following a 5-7 7-5 7-5 loss in which she wasted two match points.

She said: “I thought it was my match, I had to win it, and she got just so lucky in some moments so she could come back.

“I felt I was the player who had to win this match today.

“Of course I’m really disappointed because if I lost against an amazing player who just beat me in a great match… but I just lost my match.

“I just made mistakes. She just collected all my mistakes, unforced errors, and that’s how she won today.”

The Court One crowd were unimpressed by Ostapenko’s bad-tempered exit and made their feelings clear.

“I mean, it’s always annoying to lose such a match, especially when you know you were a better player and you were a favourite in this match,” she added.

“So of course I had emotion. I’m a human, and it’s normal. I’m not going to let it go and say, ‘it’s fine, I lost, and it’s fine’.

“No, it’s not fine. Obviously I’m an emotional player. I hate losing, as I said before, because I’m such a competitive person.

“So I think it’s normal. I mean, of course maybe I shouldn’t have done this, but it’s easy to say from the outside, when you are not on my place, it’s easy to judge.”

Maria, a 34-year-old mother-of-two from Germany, reached her first grand slam quarter-final.

She said: “I’m now in the quarter-final of Wimbledon, so it’s really amazing for me. This means also that you always have to keep going.

“It doesn’t matter how old you are, doesn’t matter how many kids you have, you just have to keep going and to believe in yourself.”

German number four Maria will face compatriot Jule Niemeier for a place in the quarter-finals.

Niemeier produced an accomplished display on Centre Court to dash the hopes of Briton’s Heather Watson 6-2 6-4.

The pair will face each other a decade after two other German women, Angelique Kerber and Sabine Lisicki, did battle in the last eight at the All England Club.

“You know, I’m pretty young. I haven’t seen them playing,” Niemeier admitted.

“I came here, I just wanted to win my first round after losing in Paris. Now, being in the quarter-final in Wimbledon, I don’t know, I’m speechless. It just feels not real.”

Third seed Ons Jabeur came through a stern examination against Elise Mertens to remain the title favourite.

Jabeur needed a tie-breaker to edge a close opener before she came through 7-6 (9) 6-4 and next up for the Tunisian will be Marie Bouzkova, who is one of three first-time grand-slam quarter-finalists in SW19.

Bouzkova was emotional after a 7-5 6-2 victory over Carolina Garcia.

She was forced to withdraw from the French Open with Covid-19 but recovered in time to play at Eastbourne last week, where she faced Jabeur and Serena Williams in the doubles.

World number 66 Bouzkova said: “I’ve actually been feeling really well physically after Covid in Paris, so it was just more about getting used to the grass, making a quick switch.

“I know Ons. I know her really well. Really nice girl. Her playing with Serena was a very fun match. Yeah, it was just very nice to be on the court with both of them.

“Ons is tricky to play for sure on grass with all the spins that she can do. Yeah, we’ll see who’s going to take the win there.”