Taylor Fritz breaks silence on girlfriend Morgan Riddle’s feud with Alexander Zverev after Wimbledon return

Taylor Fritz has revealed what Alexander Zverev told him immediately after a five-set battle at Wimbledon that escalated into a row involving the American’s girlfriend.

Zverev accused Fritz’s entourage of “overdoing it” after the No.13 seed’s stunning comeback from two sets down on Centre Court.

During and after the match, Morgan Riddle appeared to target the world number four, who has been accused of abuse. The latter denies any wrongdoing.

The two players had an apparently tense exchange at the net after Fritz’s win. During his on-court interview, Fritz was asked about what had been said: “Everything is fine,” he insisted.

“Obviously with his knee, I felt like he wasn’t moving as well in the fifth set, so I just wished him the best.”

Influencer Riddle, who has 17.2 million likes on TikTok, posted a video on Instagram after the match. She is seen celebrating her victory and is captioned: “When your man wins against the girls.” The story now appears to have been deleted.

Earlier, while the match was going on, she had She posted a photo from the courthouse to her story and wrote: “Well done ladies.” That post also appears to have been deleted.

Fritz then gave an interview to The Tennis Channel and shed more light on the feud.

“I think he was a little upset that my team members were cheering for me while he was injured, but he said, ‘It’s nothing to do with you. You’re fine…’ Whatever, everything’s fine.”

Fritz added: “I didn’t wish him a return flight.”

The German, who was accused in court documents last year of physically assaulting a woman in 2020, agreed to a settlement in the case last month. He agreed to pay Brenda Patea, the mother of his child, $217,820, but was found not guilty of any wrongdoing (Patea has publicly identified herself as the victim in the case).

Zverev later said he was angry with some people in Fritz’s dressing room who “maybe aren’t part of the tennis world.”

“His team is extremely respectful. I think his coach, his physio and his second coach are extremely respectful,” Zverev said.

“I think there are other people in the stands who are not part of the tennis world, who don’t particularly watch every match. They exaggerated a little bit.”

Last October, the Berlin-Tiergarten district court imposed a monetary penalty and a fine of approximately $488,000 against Zverev, who had denied Patea’s abuse allegations. A month later, he called the penalty “complete bullshit.”

Patea told German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung that Zverev strangled her during an argument. Zverev has also been accused of domestic violence by Olga Sharypova, another tennis player and Zverev’s ex-girlfriend.

Sharypova made the allegations – also denied by Zverev – in 2020, accusing him of punching her in the face and smothering her with a pillow.

The ATP investigated the allegations (through an outside firm) for 15 months but ultimately did not sanction Zverev based on insufficient evidence.

After reaching an agreement in June, Zverev said: “I told you from the beginning, I told everyone. I’m glad it’s over. Yeah, there’s nothing more to say.”

After beating Zverev 4-6, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-6 (3), 6-3, Fritz will face Lorenzo Musetti with a chance to reach his first Grand Slam semi-final.

Fritz and Riddle, 26, have been dating for four years, with the latter establishing herself as a prominent social media content creator.

While she has often documented herself happily participating in Fritz’s tournaments, she opened up earlier this year about her “scary” experience at the Super Bowl after being “groped” and “harassed” by male NFL fans.

The influencer revealed that she had an “extremely stressful” time at Allegiant Stadium.

Riddle detailed his traumatic ordeal on Instagram after the Chiefs-49ers game, admitting it caused him to have a panic attack in the bathroom during the third quarter.

“I wasn’t going to post about this, but I think it’s important,” she wrote. “I can’t believe the level of harassment we faced this weekend from men.”

“Over the last three days I’ve been grabbed, groped, harassed, whistled at constantly – basically every few minutes when we were in public. And it was really bad during today’s game.

“We couldn’t even enjoy the game without being disturbed by drunk, rude and abusive male fans. It’s extremely stressful and frightening.”

Riddle appeared to be having a much better time Monday as she smiled from the stands and recorded her boyfriend’s game on her phone.

Fritz will face Musetti on Wednesday.