Taylor Fritz reveals what he told Arthur Rinderknech at the net after pre-match ‘disrespect’

Taylor Fritz won his grudge match against Arthur Rinderknech at Wimbledon and after the encounter he made sure the Frenchman knew he felt “disrespected” by some pre-match comments.

The 13th seeded Fritz defeated Rinderknech in four sets at the All England Club on Thursday and they had a long “discussion” during the post-match handshake at the net.

“You know what you did,” the American could be seen telling the Frenchman and the reply was: “I know what I did?”

But Fritz insisted: “Yeah, you know what you did.”

Their beef goes back to the 2023 French Open when Fritz also won their match despite the hostile spectators at Roland Garros and he thanked the crowd sarcastically, saying: “I love you guys. The crowd was just so great that I had to let it fire me up. They cheered so well for me, I wanted to make sure I won. Thanks.”

Rinderknech brought the issue up again ahead of their match at Wimbledon as he told French media (via Quentin Moynet): “I hold no grudge against him but he was wrong if he thought the crowd would send him kisses in between points.”

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Fritz made no secret that his rival’s remarks fired him up ahead of their clash.

“I normally I don’t [get riled by comments], but it’s tough not to when, obviously, someone kind of, I guess, goes out of their way to take a jab at you. It’s tough not to see it because everyone is just going to, like, tag me and make sure I see it,” he explained.

“As soon as I saw it, the match was basically over.”

Fritz triumphed 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 and he revealed during his post-match press conference what he told Rinderknech at the net.

“It just gives me extra fire, obviously. I’m a very chill person,” the 26-year-old said. “I, like, don’t do anything that could rub people the wrong way, so when someone kind of just goes out of their way to take a shot at me, then I’m not just going to take it. It gave me the extra fire to win. When we shook hands, I just said, ‘Have a nice flight home’.

“He asked me what I said. I told him what I said. He told me he was in doubles still. I said, Oh, congrats, good for you. Then he started acting like, Why are you blah, blah, blah?

“I’m like, ‘Dude, you know what you said’. You know what you said. Don’t disrespect me before the match and then expect me to be all nice after the match. That’s not how it works.”