Morgan Riddle, the girlfriend of tennis star Taylor Fritz, faced intense backlash for her exuberant reactions during the American player’s match against Alexander Zverev. She was also under the scanner for her subsequent Instagram stories celebrating his win.
So there are speculations that Fritz himself may have asked Riddle to take down her Instagram stories to prevent the Zverev handshake controversy from escalating. This theory gained traction after Fritz addressed the issue in both his post-match interview and a conversation with Tennis Channel, where he sought to clarify the situation.
Both Instagram stories now deleted. https://t.co/CmeODhfIl1
— José Morgado (@josemorgado) July 8, 2024
The controversy between Fritz and Zverev began with a discussion at the net regarding the latter’s injury. During the match, Zverev reportedly complained about noises coming from Fritz’s supporters, particularly from Riddle’s direction.
This led to the World No.4 apparently claiming that the American’s team was disrespectful to him, cheering him on when he was suffering on court with a knee injury.
However, Riddle tried to calm the situation down by clarifying her stance on the issue on Instagram itself. She indirectly meant that she did not intend to disrespect Zverev and her behavior was blown out of proportion by the media and fans.
The social media influencer confirmed that all is good in the hood and she would be in Fritz’s box when he played Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti in the quarterfinals. So as per her, Fritz had no role to play in telling her to remove the stories she put up.
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In his interview with Tennis Channel, Fritz handled the situation sportingly, aiming to defuse any potential drama. He downplayed the incident, stating that such exchanges are part of the game and emphasized his respect for Zverev as a competitor.
The duo know each other since their juniors days, so the equation between them has always been amicable. Fritz chose to be measured in his response in order to focus on moving ahead in his Wimbledon 2024 campaign. Ofcourse, his wish is that fans focus more on his tennis than these issues.
At the time of writing this report, Fritz was one set up in his quarter-final match against Musetti. But in the second set, the scores were level at 5-5.
