Jelena Ostapenko told her opponent Laura Siegemund to 'learn how to lose' after a heated row broke out over a rules controversy at Wimbledon on July 7, 2026. Ostapenko and her partner Marcelo Arevalo secured a straight-set victory over Siegemund and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the Mixed Doubles quarter-finals, but the match was overshadowed by a post-match debate.
Time violation sparks controversy
The controversy erupted in the closing stages of the second set tie-break. With the score tied at 7-7, Siegemund was given a time violation by chair umpire Jonas Welte for taking too long with her first serve. As a result, she forfeited her first serve and subsequently missed her second serve long, losing the point. Ostapenko and Arevalo won the match on the very next point.
Both Siegemund and Roger-Vasselin immediately confronted the umpire to contest the decision. Siegemund insisted that the umpire had failed to penalize Ostapenko for similar infractions. '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,' Siegemund said. 'She did it and you did nothing.'
No handshake and heated words
Tensions rose as both teams approached the net. Both female players declined to shake hands, although Ostapenko did shake hands with Roger-Vasselin as they exchanged more words. Siegemund then headed back towards the chair umpire to protest his decision before appearing to storm off the court.
Ostapenko was clearly keen to wade into the debate, saying to the German as she walked away: 'Just take the loss a bit better, learn how to lose.' The Latvian then continued to debate the ruling with Roger-Vasselin, adding: 'It's a very good rule and he (the umpire) did a great job. 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 defends umpire's actions
'She was late a lot of times, you maybe didn't look at the clock,' Ostapenko added before saying that Siegemund's behaviour was also 'not very nice'. Ostapenko and Arevalo will now face Christian Harrison and Shuai Zhang for a place in the Mixed Doubles final. The Latvian previously reached the final with Robert Lindstedt in 2019 but suffered a straight-set defeat to Ivan Dodig and Latisha Chan.
