Australian tennis player, Ajla Tomljanovic’s Wimbledon press conference was overshadowed by a question about her ex-boyfriend Nick Kyrgios.
Tomljanvoic (main image) sadly lost to Elena Rybakini in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon. However, when she sat down for a standard presser. She wasn’t asked about her Tennis, the match or even anything to do with her, she was asked about Kygrios.
To kick off the pressor, a journo said: “You were in a relationship with Nick Kyrgios for some time. You’re aware of the allegations that have been made, and investigated by the police in Australia. What was your experience of being in a relationship with him?”
Tomljanovic responded: “I’m not really aware of exactly what’s being said about his past relationship and the allegations. I don’t know what it is.”
According to FoxSports, the journo pressed further and said: “He’s been summonsed for domestic violence against a former partner to a court in Canberra.”
Tomljanovic responded: “It’s been a while since our relationship ended. Obviously, I’ve always kept my relationship very private. I would like to keep it like that. I’m definitely against domestic violence. I hope it gets resolved. But yeah, I mean, I haven’t had that experience with him.”
I cannot stress enough that this was the first question asked to Tomljanovic after she’d just lost an incredibly significant match. Tomljanovic is ranked 47th in the world and is an incredible athlete and talent and at her post-match press conference, she had to field questions about an ex.
After the exchange, Tomljanovic took to Twitter to air her frustrations, “Quite disappointing that after almost two hours of playing my quarterfinals that that was the first question the journalist chose to ask me, and never proceeded to ask anything match related. Glad to see headlines mostly about that now. Do better.”
Quite disappointing that after almost 2 hours of playing my quarterfinals that that was the first question the journalist chose to ask me, and never proceeded to ask anything match related. Glad to see headlines mostly about that now. Do better 😤 https://t.co/ygoUDe1XBb
— Ajla Tomljanovic (@Ajlatom) July 6, 2022
It goes without saying, but I will say it anyway because this kind of stuff always seems to happen to female athletes. Women shouldn’t have to answer for men’s behaviour, and Tomijanovic deserved for her post-game presser to be about her and Tennis, not some guy she used to date.