Bernard Tomic’s influencer girlfriend is allegedly receiving death threats for a video she posted online, but is it all part of a genius marketing ploy?

With a successful career as an Instagram influencer and a stint on Love Island Australia under her belt, Vanessa Sierra is no stranger to the spotlight.

The 26-year-old from Sydney has also built up an impressive following on adult image-sharing platform, OnlyFans, where top creators can earn between $13,000 and $643,000 a month.

But despite her savvy ability to monetise her image, you might be forgiven for not knowing who she was before this week.

Sierra, who has been dating Tomic since November, left fans furious after documenting their stay at hotel quarantine and joking about never washing her hair.

The comment in question referred to the fact she had “never” washed her own hair, an inconvenience she joked as being “the worst part of quarantine”.

“I don’t wash my own hair – I’ve never washed my own hair. It’s just not something that I do,” Sierra said in the video.

“I usually have hairdressers that do it twice a week for me.”

And while she claims the comment has led to her receiving death threats from social media users, some are questioning if the former businesswoman is smarter than she appears.

https://twitter.com/GrogsGamut/status/1351311160436350976

Whether her remarks were misconstrued or not, the outcry has undoubtedly done wonders for her influencer career.

Vanessa Sierra is a publicity genius. I will be tweeting about my toenail care regime immediately before my Melbourne International Comedy Festival tickets go on sale.

— Kirsty Webeck 🦈 (@KirstyWebeck) January 19, 2021

Sierra also has a vested interest in building publicity after her original Instagram account, which had amassed more than one million followers, was recently deleted.

“Everyone who says, ‘Get a real job’ – little do you guys know, social media supports myself, I hire my brother full time, I hire another person full time, I support my grandmother and other people in my family,’’ Sierra said at the time.

“I’ve worked on my social media for a very long time. I don’t use it for fun, I use it for business.

“The f—-d-up thing is that if someone loses their job because of COVID, everyone feels sorry for them.”

She later responded to the death threats on her Instagram story, calling her haters ‘‘class clowns on a witch hunt’’.

‘‘If I want to laugh about how bad my hair is in quarantine I unapologetically will.’’

Bernard Tomic's girlfriend is not pleased with the treatment she got from that 7 News story last night. pic.twitter.com/ACvJ0YYhGB

— Rohan Smith (@Ro_Smith) January 18, 2021

But while Sierra fumed at critics who told her to ‘‘get a real job’’, it seems she might have already done that.

A career change

Tomic, who has made it to the Australian Open for the first time since 2019, said his secret was his new coach – his girlfriend.

“My girlfriend’s coaching me actually,” Tomic told AAP.

“She’s just helping me with a few things. We’ve managed to win eight matches. Quite good, it’s a new tactic for 2021.”

• Related: Australian Open 2021: Why the show must go on despite the controversy

The 28-year-old tennis star, whose career-high ranking peaked at No.17, doubled down on the statements when asked if he was serious.

“Dead set, mate. Of course, 100 per cent,” he said.

“I mean, I’ve won eight out of nine matches. I think I won five out of the six UTR (matches before qualifying). They were all three-setters.”

When asked exactly how Sierra had been training him, Tomic remained tight-lipped and refused to disclose any further details.

“Mate, it’s a secret. It’s a secret,” he said.

“I’m not going to give out my tips, you know what I mean?”

The couple are part of a much larger cohort of tennis legends currently enduring (and complaining about) the arduous 14-day isolation.

Sierra also took aim at the food, and said despite receiving daily UberEats vouchers valued at $100 each, the couple had been ordering food worth “about $200 per day” in an effort to ensure Tomic was eating correctly.

“It’s real hit and miss. Sometimes the food’s good, sometimes the food’s not, so we’d rather just order our own food,” she said.

The 10pm food deliver cut-off was also a sore point.

“We ordered like $60 worth of food, got delivered after 11pm and they refused to take it, so we weren’t allowed to eat our food.”

In all fairness, holding someone’s late-night UberEats hostage would be enough to set off most midnight-snackers.