There was drama both on and off the court during Taylor Fritz’ marathon thriller against Alexander Zverev as he produced an epic comeback to win 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 6-3 to book his place in the Wimbledon Quarter-Finals for the second time in his career.
He achieved the feat by wearing down his opponent who had heavy strapping on his knee. He seemed to accost Fritz at the net. But while on the premise it didn’t seem like anything that was malicious or aimed at Zverev, the post match musings were a bit different.
“It’s all good,” Fritz said in his on-court interview. “With his knee it felt like he wasn’t moving as well so I just wished him the best.”
“It was amazing to do that on Centre Court two sets down in front of this crowd,” he said. “It’s a dream. The thing was I still felt I was playing really well for being down two sets. I was just thinking it sucked to be playing this well and to lose in straights. So let’s take the third, I took it one at a time. I had that belief. It was just a couple of points here and there.”
But John McEnroe and Nick Kyrgios saw a different take. “I would like to know exactly what was being said here (at the net)… I don’t know if it was all ‘I love you’, but I could be wrong.”
“Look… it doesn’t look too bad, it’s definitely not what Taylor told someone earlier in the week, enjoy your flight home, I think they have a lot of respect, these guys have played each other a lot and Fritz knows that he is dealing with a bit of a knee thing,” said Kyrgios.
Zverev confirmed though afterwards that while the knee was an issue, he was also upset with some people in Fritz’s box who ‘may not be from the tennis world’. This rules out Michael Russell or any other coach/trainer.
“His team is extremely respectful. I think his coach, his physio, also his second coach, they’re extremely respectful. 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.”
This is likely referring to Morgan Riddle who also posted some not so subtle videos on her social media with digs at Alexander Zverev. First ‘cheer loud ladies’ and then ‘when your man wins for the girls’. This likely is a dig at Zverev having had two domestic abuse allegations levied at him and becoming public enemy number one to some in tennis. The second allegation being by ex-girlfriend Brenda Patea which was settled last month. Albeit not many players if any spoke on the situation. So while there was drama on the court, the same can be said off it.
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