“Couldn’t Be More Proud”: Ex-USA Top 10 Star Lauds Taylor Fritz for ‘Have a Nice Flight Home’ Jibe at Arthur Rinderknech

The Taylor Fritz vs Arthur Rinderknech men’s singles Round of 64 clash has been the most feisty from the first five days of Wimbledon 2024. Before their match began, the Frenchman didn’t hesitate to criticize his opponent, calling out Fritz for “whining” during their French Open 2023 battle. The Californian’s ‘Have a nice flight home!’ response during their post-match handshake has gone viral on social media, drawing appreciation from numerous enthusiasts and personalities from the tennis world.

Fans on social media blew up with reactions when details of this interaction were disclosed on social media.  The likes of Nick Kyrgios appreciated the trash talk. Whereas, Mardy Fish, a former top 10 ranked player from the United States, summed up the emotions of every American perfectly. Fish said that he was proud of Fritz for the way he handled that.

This is definitely the first time Fritz was seen this animated on a tennis court. While it may surprise fans, the World No. 12 warned that he wouldn’t mind behaving in such a manner again if any other opponent disrespected him in that way.

Fritz Doesn’t Mind Being the Not-So-Good Guy

Taylor Fritz joined the Tennis Channel broadcast after his 4-set win and decided to shed light on the verbal altercation at the net. The American explained that he wasn’t usually as chirpy as he was against Arthur Rinderknech.

“I was just telling him ‘have a good flight’… I’m a really just chill guy, I don’t have issues with anybody,” Fritz said.

But if he found himself in the midst of any controversy, he wouldn’t treat his opponent with as much respect.

“It’s pretty surprising when I’m seeing getting tagged on all this stuff. Randomly he starts taking some jabs at me before the match. So if you’re going to do that, don’t expect me to be nice after the match,” Fritz concluded.

At the time of writing this report, Taylor Fritz was trailing 1-2 in the first set against Alejandro Tabilo in his third round match on Saturday before play got suspended.