Taylor Fritz finds quarter-final defeat hard to stomach and girlfriend Morgan Riddle becomes a meme again
Defending champion Taylor Fritz met his match in the quarter-finals of the 2023 Indian Wells Open.
Fritz lost the last eight battle with Italian Jannik Sinner, ending his hopes of defending his maiden Masters’ title.
He shared that he finds losses at the quarter-final and semi-final stage hardest to swallow, feeling that you have come so far only to fall close to the finish.
“I hate losing in quarter-finals and semi-finals probably more than I hate losing in like the first and second round of tournaments. But it happens. Just gotta move on,” a disappointed Fritz said.
Taylor Fritz was gutted to miss out on another run to the final after his 2022 experience was marred by injury.
“I hate more than anything losing in quarter-finals and semi-finals of tournaments.
“You do all the work, and then do all the work of winning like three, four matches, and then don’t really get the payoff or like the points and the ranking,” he said later on.
“The way the rankings, the system works is it rewards better for, you know, lose first round three weeks in a row then just win a title than consistently win a couple of matches and lose in the quarter-finals and semi-finals like a couple weeks in a row. It’s way better to just go big and win the tournament,” he added.
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Playing at Indian Wells means that Fritz has enjoyed having his family and girlfriend Morgan Riddle in his box.
Riddle’s Tiktok videos give her followers a little insight into the life of an influencer and tennis girlfriend.
During Fritz’s Round of 16 match against Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics, Riddle was ‘caught in 4k’ staring at her boyfriend’s shirtless opponent and ‘became a meme again’.
“What was I supposed to do? The man was built like a Greek god, Riddle joked on a TikTok video.
@moorrgs unfortunately not the first time ive been turned into a meme on twitter.
Riddle is part of the filming process for the Netflix docuseries Break Point and also offers commentary on that in some of her TikTok content.
The couple will soon make the coast to coast trek to Miami as Fritz prepares to bounce back from disappointment in the second half of the Sunshine Double.
“Back to keep it going in Miami, because what really matters is the race and how I’m going to finish this year,” Fritz said.
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