Taylor Fritz breaks his silence on the feud between girlfriend Morgan Riddle and Alexander Zverev after the Wimbledon comeback

Taylor Fritz has revealed what Alexander Zverev said to him immediately after a five-set duel at Wimbledon that culminated in a dispute over the American’s girlfriend.

Zverev accused members of Fritz’s box of “overdoing it” after the 13th seed staged a stunning comeback from a two-set deficit on Centre Court.

Both during and after the match, Morgan Riddle appeared to have his sights set on the world number four, who was accused of verbal abuse. He denies any wrongdoing.

The two players had what appeared to be a tense exchange at the net following Fritz’s victory. During his on-court interview, Fritz was asked what was said: “It’s all good,” he insisted.

“It felt like he wasn’t moving so well with his knee in the fifth set, so I just wished him the best.”

Social media influencer Riddle, who has 17.2 million likes on TikTok, posted a video on Instagram after the match showing her celebrating the win with the caption: “When your man wins for the girls.” The story appears to have since been deleted.

Previously, while the game was running, she had posted a picture of the court in her story and wrote: “Cheer loudly, ladies.” This post also appears to have been deleted.

Fritz later gave time for an interview with The Tennis Channel and shed more light on the feud.

“I think he was a little upset that my teammates were cheering me on when he was injured, but he said, ‘It’s nothing to do with you. You guys are fine…’ Whatever, it’s all good.”

Fritz added: “So I didn’t wish him a flight home.”

The German, who was accused in court documents last year of physically abusing a woman in 2020, agreed to a settlement in the case last month. He agreed to pay Brenda Patea, the mother of his child, $217,820, but was found not guilty (Patea publicly identified herself as a victim in the case).

Zverev said afterwards that he was annoyed by some people in Fritz’s box who “may not come from the tennis world”.

“His team is extremely respectful. I think his coach, his physiotherapist and also his second coach are extremely respectful,” said Zverev.

“I think there are a few other people in the box who maybe aren’t from the tennis world, who maybe haven’t seen every single game. They overdid it a little bit.”

Last October, the Berlin-Tiergarten court issued a penal order and a fine of around $488,000 against Zverev, who had denied Patea’s abuse allegations. A month later, he described the order as “complete nonsense.”

Patea told the Süddeutsche Zeitung that Zverev choked her during an argument. Zverev was also accused of domestic violence by Olga Sharypova, a tennis colleague and another ex-girlfriend of his.

Sharypova made the allegations – which were also denied by Zverev – in 2020, accusing him of punching her in the face and suffocating her with a pillow.

The ATP investigated the allegations (through an external law firm) for 15 months, but ultimately did not impose disciplinary measures against Zverev because there was insufficient evidence.

After reaching an agreement in June, Zverev said: “I told you from the beginning, I told everyone. I’m glad it’s over. Yes, there’s nothing more to say.”

After his victory against Zverev with 4:6, 6:7 (4), 6:4, 7:6 (3), 6:3, Fritz now faces Lorenzo Musetti and has the chance to reach his first Grand Slam semifinal.

Fritz, 26, and Riddle have been together for four years, with the latter establishing herself as a well-known social media content creator.

While she is often shown happily participating in Fritz’s tournaments, earlier this year she spoke about her “scary” experience at the Super Bowl, where she was “groped” and “harassed” by male NFL fans.

The influencer admitted that she had an “extremely stressful” time at Allegiant Stadium.

Riddle described her traumatic ordeal on Instagram after the Chiefs-49ers game, admitting that she suffered a panic attack in the bathroom in the third quarter due to the ordeal.

“I wasn’t going to post about this but I think it’s important,” she wrote. “I can’t believe how much harassment we’ve had to endure from men this weekend.”

“For the last three days, I’ve been constantly groped, grabbed, harassed and verbally abused – basically every few minutes when we were out in public. And at today’s game, it was really bad.”

“We couldn’t even enjoy the game without being harassed by drunk, rude, obnoxious male fans. It’s extremely stressful and scary.”

Riddle seemed to be having a lot more fun on Monday, smiling from the stands and recording her boyfriend’s game on her phone.

Fritz will face Musetti on Wednesday.