Taylor Fritz addresses girlfriend's controversial post involving Alexander Zverev

Taylor Fritz spoke about the controversy involving his girlfriend Morgan Riddle in an alleged dispute with Alexander Zverev. The American influencer posted a video on social media with the caption: “When your man wins 4 the girls,” which many interpreted as a dig at the German player due to his involvement in domestic violence cases, in which the world No. 4 was implicated.

Riddle, who has over 500,000 followers on TikTok and 17 million likes, posted a story on the court with the title: “Cheer loud ladies,” although both posts were later deleted.

“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,” Morgan Riddle said. "They were not about anything that's happened off the tennis court & there's no bad blood between anyone.”

"Super proud of you for the match yesterday, thank you to the crowd for the support & looking forward to tomorrow," she added about her boyfriend's victory. Taylor Fritz secured a hard-fought win by 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 6-3, and reached the quarter-finals, where he eventually lost to Lorenzo Musetti.

The world No. 12 now spoke about the ‘noise’ generated by his girlfriend’s post on social media: “I just blocked it out,” the American No. 1 said. “When it gets deep into a tournament like this, I try to stay off social media. There's too many people texting you and all that stuff anyway. I kind of just put the phone down. That's about it."

Fritz also explained what he and Zverev discussed during their long handshake at the net after the match: "I think he felt that he was, for parts, I guess towards the end of the fifth at least, kind of limping around a bit. I think he was annoyed at some people in my box just being loud, cheering for me. Honestly, I can't hear. I don't know. Like, no big deal. He said it's nothing towards me or anything like that."

Despite the controversy caused on social media, Zverev avoided further polemics with Fritz and wanted to move past the issue: “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."