Taylor Fritz beat Alexander Zverev in a thrilling Wimbledon five-setter – and the American’s girlfriend Morgan Riddle appeared to take aim at the defeated German in now deleted social media posts.
On Centre Court, Fritz came back from two sets down to beat Zverev 4-6 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 in one of the matches of the tournament.
The pair shared a lengthy exchange over the net cord after their last-16 Wimbledon match had ended.
Moments after the entertaining encounter had ended, Fritz’s social media influencer girlfriend Riddle posted a message on Instagram that read: “When ur man wins 4 the girls.”
Riddle, who has over 300k followers on Instagram and 17m likes on TikTok, also posted a picture during the match of Centre Court with the comment, ‘cheer loud ladies.’
Riddle would later delete both of those posts from her Instagram account.
The remarks would appear to be in reference to assault allegations made against Zverev.
Zverev recently settled an assault case against him by his former partner Brenda Patea following a lengthy legal battle.
He agreed to pay Patea, the mother of his child, $217,820 but the tennis star has always maintained his innocence and there was no acknowledgement of guilt.
Zverev admitted after the game he had been unhappy with the celebrations from the Fritz box after a tense exchange at the net.
But he insisted there was no ill-feeling, although he had likely not been aware of the comments from Fritz’s girlfriend at that time.
In his post match press conference, the German said: “Me and Taylor, we grew up together, playing each other since juniors.
“I think it was fairly obvious that I wasn’t 100 per cent today, right? I wasn’t moving really the entire match. I wasn’t running for dropshots. If I was running for a dropshot, I was limping there more than running.
“Towards the end, I thought from the fourth and fifth set, I was really struggling to serve, as well, to jump off on my leg, to create some power.
“His team is extremely respectful. I think his coach, his physio, also his second coach, they’re extremely respectful. I think there’s some other people that maybe are in the box that are not maybe from the tennis world, that are not maybe from particularly watching every single match. They were a bit over the top.
“That’s okay. No issues. No drama. He fought back from two sets to love, so they’re obviously all excited, very pumped up, yeah. But no issues with Taylor. I think Taylor is a great guy. I have absolutely no issues with him.”
Fritz himself was asked about the interaction over the net and admitted that his opponent was annoyed about things that had gone on in his box.
He said: “I mean, at the net, like, it’s no big deal. I think he felt that he was for parts, I guess towards the end of the fifth at least, kind of limping around a bit.
“I think he was annoyed at some people in my box just being loud, cheering for me. Honestly, I can’t hear. I don’t know. Like, no big deal. He said it’s nothing towards me or anything like that.”
In a separate interview with The Tennis Channel, he said: “I think he was a little upset about my team members cheering for me when he was injured but he said: “It’s nothing to do with you. You’re all good…” Whatever, it’s all good.”
Fritz added: “I wasn’t wishing him a flight home so.”
That comment was in reference to the bitter feud he has with Arthur Rinderknech and the drama in their match earlier in the tournament.
During their post-match handshake at the net, Fritz told his opponent to ‘have a nice flight home’ after dumping him out.
Fritz will go on to face Italian Lorenzo Musetti in the quarter-finals on Wednesday.