Taylor Fritz’s girlfriend was at the center of a Wimbledon feud on Monday as the American came from two sets down to beat Alexander Zverev.
Zverev accused members of Fritz’s box of going ‘over the top’ after the 13th seed’s stunning comeback. Both during and following the match, Morgan Riddle appeared to take aim at the world No 4, who has faced allegations of abuse.
The German, who was last year accused in court documents of physically abusing 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 publicly identified herself as the victim in the case).
Social media influencer Riddle, who has 17.2million likes on TikTok, posted a video to her Instagram story that showed her enjoying a drink with the caption ‘when your man wins 4 the girls.’ The story now appears to have been deleted.
Morgan Riddle appeared to take aim at Alexander Zverev after he lost to Taylor Fritz
Riddle, a popular social media influencer, watched on as her boyfriend advanced
Fritz and Zverev had a noticeably tense exchange at the net after the match finished
Earlier, while the match was unfolding, she also posted a picture of the court to her story and wrote, ‘cheer loud ladies.’ That post also appears to have been taken down.
After the five-set match, which saw Fritz advance to the Wimbledon quarterfinals, the two players had a tense exchange at the net as Zverev said some words to his opponent.
He said afterwards that he was upset with some people in Fritz’s box who ‘may not be from the tennis world.’
‘His team is extremely respectful. I think his coach, his physio, also his second coach, they’re extremely respectful,’ Zverev said.
‘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.’
Last October, the Berlin-Tiergarten court issued a penalty order and a fine of around $488,000 against Zverev, who has denied Patea’s claims of abuse. He called the order ‘complete bulls***’ a month later.
Patea told German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung that Zverev choked her during an argument. Zverev has also been accused of domestic abuse by Olga Sharypova, a fellow tennis player and another ex-girlfriend of his.
Zverev accused certain members of Fritz’s box of being ‘over the top’ during the match
Riddle also posted a story that read ‘cheer loud ladies’ during the five-set match
Fritz produced a stunning comeback on Centre Court to defeat Zverev on Monday
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 claims (via an outside firm) for 15 months but ultimately did not discipline Zverev on the basis of insufficient evidence.
Following his settlement in June, Zverev said ‘I told you so from the start, I told everybody. I’m happy that it’s over. Yeah, nothing else 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 make his first Grand Slam semifinal.
The 26-year-old Fritz and Riddle have been dating for the past four years, with the latter establishing herself as a prominent social media content creator.
While she’s frequently documented herself happily taking in Fritz’s tournaments, she opened up earlier this year on her ‘scary’ experience at the Super Bowl after being ‘groped’ and ‘harassed’ by male NFL fans.
Riddle and Taylor Fritz, the world No. 14 in tennis, have been dating for four years
Riddle has amassed a large social media following in showing off her life around tennis
The influencer revealed that she had an ‘extremely stressful’ time at Allegiant Stadium.
Riddle detailed her traumatic ordeal on Instagram after the game between the Chiefs and 49ers admitting it caused her to have a panic attack in the restroom during the third quarter.
‘Wasn’t going to post about this but I actually think it’s important to,’ she wrote. ‘I can’t believe the levels of harassment we dealt with this weekend from men.
‘In the last 3 days I’ve been grabbed, gropped (sic), harassed, cat called incessantly – basically every few minutes when we were out in public. And it was really bad at the game today.
‘We couldn’t even enjoy the game without getting bothered by drunk, rude, gross male fans. It’s extremely stressful and scary.’
Riddle looked to have a much better time on Monday as she smiled from the stands and recorded her boyfriend’s match on her phone.
Fritz will face Musetti on Wednesday.