With the Wimbledon finals just around the corner, things are hotting up in the tennis world. But if there’s one thing keeping us gripped alongside the remarkable talent (and the who’s who of the Royal Box, of course), it’s the drama unfolding off court.
Much of this centres around Morgan Riddle, a social media influencer who is dating US tennis player Taylor Fritz. In a now-deleted Instagram post, Riddle claimed that Fritz beat German player Alexander Zverev for ‘the girls’, in what appears to be a reference to the previous domestic abuse allegations against Zverev. Zverev denies any wrongdoing.
Riddle posted an image of Centre Court which she captioned ‘cheer loud ladies’ before uploading a TikTok of her holding a drink with the caption ‘when ur man wins 4 the girls.’ Fritz ended up beating Zverev and advancing to the quarter finals, and the two could be seen having a tense on court chat after the match.
Things escalated further when Zverev told a press conference that some members of Fritz’s entourage were ‘over the top.’ He said, ‘His team is extremely respectful,’ adding ‘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.’ Fritz echoed this sentiment in his post-match press conference, saying ‘I think he was annoyed at some people in my box just being loud, cheering for me.’
Since, Riddle has spoken out on her Instagram about why she hastily deleted the posts. 'Regarding my stories yesterday... i took them down as soon as i realized the misunderstanding and how blown out of proportion they had become by the media,' she said. They were not about anything that's happened off the tennis court & there's no bad blood between anyone. Super proud of T [Taylor] for the match yesterday, thank you to the crowd for the support & looking forward to tomorrow.'
Here's everything we know about Morgan Riddle...
Who is Morgan Riddle?
Morgan Riddle, 26, is the girlfriend of American tennis player Taylor Fritz, who is ranked No. 12 in the ATP Rankings. Riddle was dubbed ‘the most famous woman in men’s tennis’ in a profile by the New York Times last year, and currently has over 313,000 followers on Instagram and nearly 500,000 on TikTok. In one of her most viral TikToks, she explains she’s on a mission to make ‘tennis cool again.’
On her accounts, she documents her life as a tennis ‘wag’ – a label she has always ‘embraced.’ She previously told Tatler ‘I've worked tirelessly to try to turn around the connotations – having that title [WAG] shouldn't mean that we're any less than because we choose to support our partners.’
She surrounds herself with other wives and girlfriends of famous tennis players, including Thanasi Kokkinakis' partner Hannah Dal Sasso, Tommy Paul's partner Paige Lorenze, Nick Kyrgios ' girlfriend Costeen Hatzi and Frances Tiafoe's girlfriend Ayan Broomfield.
When her social media took off, Riddle was hired by Wimbledon as the host of ‘Wimbledon Threads’ a video series on fashion at the tournament. Last year, she also released two pieces of jewellery in collaboration with a New York based company. Alongside her fashion endeavours, Riddle featured on the show Break Point with Fritz, which follows lives of tennis stars on and off the court.
She met Fritz on Rayain 2020 – the private membership-based dating app. 'Because it was during Covid, no restaurants were open, no bars were open so we ordered sushi,' she told PEOPLE. ‘We went to his place and I made him watch Midsommar with me, the really messed up horror movie. Why I chose that as my first introduction to a guy, I don't really know. I think I traumatized him a little bit.’
Although she spends her time travelling the world with Fritz to attend various tournaments, Riddle grew up in Minnesota before moving to New York for university, where she graduated with a degree in English language and literature from Wagner College. In an interview with PEOPLE, she revealed how she is living the life she always dreamed of growing up. ‘I was one of those girls that was obsessed with the Bali travel videos and stuff,' she said. 'But I grew up from a much more low middle-class background in Minnesota that just wasn't accessible to me ever. I never really believed that I would be able to see the world in that way.'