Boyfriend's big confession about Ajla Tomljanovic drama at Wimbledon

Matteo Berrettini has opened up about the stress of watching his girlfriend Ajla Tomljanovic play at Wimbledon, admitting he gets more nervous watching her than when he plays.

Tomljanovic was at the centre of major controversy on Saturday when she accused opponent Jelena Ostapenko of 'lying' about an injury to take a tactical medical timeout.

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The Aussie star complained to the chair umpire before an ugly war of words with Ostapenko that saw both players accuse each other of being 'disrespectful'.

Fortunately for Berrettini, he was playing at the same time when they both won their third round clashes to reach the second week.

But the Italian faces a nervous afternoon on Monday, with the World No.9 taking on Ilya Ivashka of Belarus in the morning slot, giving him plenty of time to finish up before Tomljanovic faces new British fan favourite Emma Raducanu.

"I feel like 10 times more stressed watching her match than when I'm playing my match so I like it when we're playing at the same time," he told the Wimbledon Channel.

"I finished first (in third round), like five minutes before. I'm playing best of five, so I didn't know if she won her match because they weren't showing the score.

"So I was like 'maybe she finished before me, maybe she's coming here'.

"Then I was like ...'maybe she lost, maybe she's upset'. I stepped out of the court and my coach said it was 5-1.

"Then I saw it was 15-40 and I was like 'oh no'. I would rather play than watch her match."

Samantha Murray Sharan and husband Divij Sharan are playing mixed doubles this year, and Tomljanovic revealed there was almost another love match in the draw.

"We've been planning to play for the longest time and always find a reason not to," said the Australian.

"But this time I swear the rain screwed us up and we had to play back to back.

"For me it's not a problem but for him playing best of five I didn't want to risk it. It was a good call I think.

"I even wrote the email to apply and saved it in drafts! Hopefully we will play in the Australian Open, or maybe US Open."

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Tomljanovic was unrepentant in her post-match press conference, saying tennis bosses should introduce rules to weed out players who fake injury.

"So I did get a little more emotional, but, I mean, I have no regrets with what I said to her," she said.

"I think it's disgraceful behaviour from someone who's a slam champion, because kids look at her and, what, they see that?

"There definitely should be a rule where we prevent that from happening, because it happens way too much in the women's game.

"I have been in situations where players use that medical timeout to get their opponent off, usually when they are losing badly and when the match was getting closer to the end.

"The thing is you can always lie, but this is where sportsmanship comes into play.

"No matter the rule, we are elite athletes in tennis, and I expect more.

"I'm in situations many times where I want to do anything to win, but you just don't cross (the line on) certain things.

"I mean, I wish there was a new rule, maybe just that we use it when someone is really in crazy pain. I don't know what to say."

with AAP

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