RIDDLE ROW
Taylor Fritz’s influencer girlfriend Morgan Riddle sparks feud with defeated rival Zverev with now-deleted video
Fritz weighed in with cheeky dig at beaten Zverev before Morgan released statement
TAYLOR FRITZ'S girlfriend Morgan Riddle sparked a feud with Alexander Zverev following his Wimbledon collapse.
The German No4 seed won the first two sets of his last-16 clash with Fritz on Centre Court on Monday.
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But he then lost the next three sets in a row to be dumped out - as Fritz set up a quarter-final date with Lorenzo Musetti.
At the end of the match, Zverev had a long conversation with Fritz at the net, seemingly complaining about the noise coming from the American's player box - where Riddle enthusiastically cheered on her man throughout.
The glamorous social media influencer was certainly pumped for the match - even before it got underway.
She took to her Instagram story with a photo of the view from the player box on Wimbledon's Centre Court and wrote: "Cheer loud ladies."
Then after her man secured victory, she shared a reel toasting and sipping her drink in her short white dress and navy jacket, captioned: "When your man wins for the girls."
The comments are potentially subtle references to the domestic abuse allegations that were made against Zverev by two former girlfriends.
Olya Sharypova claimed he punched her in the face and smothered her with a pillow, which he denied.
Zverev was also accused of pushing and strangling the mother of his child Brenda Patea, but the charge - which he also denied - was settled with no official verdict and Zverev paying £170,000 to the German state and charitable organisations.
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However, Wimbledon Wag Morgan deleted both Instagram posts soon after the match.
And she later backtracked by releasing a statement trying to play down the feud.
I’m a glamorous Wimbledon Wag who knew nothing about tennis… now I love it
Tennis stars’ new careers
PLENTY of tennis stars have stayed involved in the sport since retiring.
But others pursued very different careers. Here are some of the best…
- I reached French Open and Wimbledon finals as a teenager but I quit to become a nun
- I won Wimbledon mixed doubles with my sister but got fed up with English weather so now run luxury B&B
- I was tipped for stardom aged 12 but retrained to become high-flying lawyer
- I earned £9m and won French Open before setting up bistro with Brazilian model girlfriend
- I’m last Frenchman to win Roland Garros, now I’m singer with six albums hitting No1 in charts
- I'm former world No1 but quit aged 29 - instead I went on to play professional poker and golf
- I was destined for the top but swapped lobs for labs as award-winning Harvard physicist
Morgan wrote on her story: "I took them down as soon as I realised the misunderstanding and how blown out of proportion they had become by the media.
"They were not about anything that's happened off the tennis court [and] there's no bad blood between anyone.
"Super proud of T for the match yesterday, thank you to the crowd for the support and looking forward to tomorrow."
But bitter Zverev still had time to moan about Fritz's box - without directly naming Riddle.
He complained in his press conference: "His team is extremely respectful. I think his coach, his physio and also his second coach were extremely respectful.
"But I think there are some other people that, maybe, are in the box that are not, maybe from the tennis world and are not, maybe, particularly watching every match.
Wimbledon 2024 prize money
PRIZE MONEY for the 2024 Wimbledon Championships is a new record - and puts the grass-court Slam at the top of the tree.
The All England Club will dish out £50million across all the events - an increase of £5.3m and 11.9 per cent on last year, where singles champions Carlos Alcaraz and Marketa Vondrousova picked up £2.35m each.
However, the king and queen of grass this July will collect an extra £350,000 - taking the winner's earnings to £2.7m.
Here is the breakdown for the 2024 Wimbledon singles prize money:
- Winner: £2.7m
- Runner-up: £1.4m
- Semi-finalists: £715,000
- Quarter-finalists: £375,000
- Fourth round: £226,000
- Third round: £143,000
- Second round: £93,000
- First round: £60,000
- Overall total: £50m
"They were a bit over the top but that’s OK. No issues, no drama. He fought back from two sets to love so they are obviously all excited, very pumped up.
"But no issues with Taylor. I think Taylor is a great guy and I have no issues with him."
Fritz refused to be drawn on the feud - but did take a cheeky dig at his defeated opponent, who claimed he was playing "on one leg" thanks to a knee injury sustained against Cameron Norrie on Saturday.
Fritz responded: "I think he was annoyed at some people in my box just being loud, cheering for me.
"He said it's nothing towards me.
"Honestly, I can't hear. I don't really hear my box when I'm playing. I didn't hear anyone being extremely loud.
"He's totally allowed to be annoyed if they were being annoying. One of the things I asked him at the net, 'Who was it?'
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"I guess towards the end of the fifth [he was] kind of limping around a bit.
"I thought the match [he] seemed extremely normal until I was up the break in the fifth, then I feel like that's when I felt like he was limping and moving."
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How Sir David Attenborough made tennis balls yellow
DID you know Sir David Attenborough is one of the main reasons tennis is played with yellow balls?
It's hard to imagine Wimbledon being played without the signature fluorescent balls.
However, the truth is that upon the inception of lawn tennis in the late 1800s players would normally use white or sometimes black balls.
That went on until fans started to buy colour televisions.
Attenborough worked as a controller for BBC Two in 1967 and it was up to him to transition viewers to colour from black and white.
The legendary presenter quickly realised that it is hard to notice the white ball when it travels over white lines and suggested tennis chiefs switch to the bright, yellow colour.
The International Tennis Federation approved what is now known as the “optic yellow” ball in 1972.
But it took Wimbledon another 14 years before they finally saw the light, eventually making the switch for the Championships in 1986.