Alexander Zverev hits out at Taylor Fritz’s camp as girlfriend deletes provocative Instagram message

Kevin Palmer
Alexander Zverev and Taylor Fritz after their epic Wimbledon battle
Alexander Zverev and Taylor Fritz after their epic Wimbledon battle

Alexander Zverev hit out at members of Taylor Fritz’s support team at Wimbledon after he lost an epic five-set battle against the American on Centre Court.

Fritz came from two sets down to beat Alexander Zverev and bury the memory of his last match on Centre Court.

American 13th seed Fritz sealed his place in the Wimbledon quarter-finals with an epic 4-6 6-7 (4) 6-4 7-6 (3) 6-3 victory in three hours and 29 minutes.

The last time Fritz played on Centre Court, in 2022, he came out on the wrong side of a five-set quarter-final against Rafael Nadal.

It was a defeat that left Fritz in tears for weeks afterwards, but it also turned out to be Nadal’s last appearance in SW19, as such was the intensity of the match the Spaniard aggravated an injury which forced him to withdraw from the semi-final.

Fritz should have feared more heartbreak when he slipped two sets behind to fourth seed Zverev, a player who had yet to drop his serve all week.

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But the 26-year-old refused to lie down and somehow dug deep to conjure up a famous victory.

The pair had a long conversation at the net afterwards, with Zverev unimpressed by the antics of some of Fritz’s entourage in the player’s box.

“His team is extremely respectful. I think his coach, his physio, also his second coach, they’re extremely respectful,” said Zverev.

“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.”

Many suspected Zverev’s angst was directed towards Fritz’s girlfriend Morgan Riddle and she may not have helped the situation by suggesting the win for her fella was ‘a win for the girls’.

The now deleted message was posted a few weeks after Zverev’s domestic abuse court case ended run Germany and when Fritz was asked about the incident, he offered up a polite response.

“I mean, I don’t know. Like I said, I can’t hear. I don’t really hear my box when I’m playing like that,” he said.

“I didn’t hear anyone being, like, extremely loud.

“He’s totally allowed to be annoyed if they were being annoying. Like, again, I don’t know. That’s one of the things I asked him at the net, Who was it? Yeah, I mean, again, it’s not a big thing. It’s all good.”

Fritz must have feared more heartbreak when he slipped two sets behind to fourth seed Zverev, a player who had yet to drop his serve all week.

But the 26-year-old refused to lie down and somehow dug deep to conjure up a famous victory.

“It was amazing to do that on Centre Court, being two sets down is like, it’s a dream,” he added.

“The thing was I feel like I was still playing really well, I thought it sucked to be playing this well and lose in three straight, so I took it one set at a time.

“It was just a couple of points either way so I felt I could take it one set at a time and turn it around.”