Tennis
Morgan Riddle speaks out after deleted posts spark Wimbledon frenzy
Morgan Riddle has addressed the fallout of her deleted Instagram posts at Wimbledon, stating Tuesday in an Instagram Story how the matter has been “blown out of proportion.”
The influencer, who is the longtime girlfriend of American tennis pro Taylor Fritz, had the internet buzzing when she deleted videos that showed her celebrating during his Round of 16 victory against Germany’s Alexander Zverev on Monday — which included the captions, “When ur mans wins for the girls” and “Cheer loud ladies.”
“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,” Riddle said. “They were not about anything that’s happened off the tennis court & there’s no bad blood between anyone.
“Super proud of t for the match yesterday, thank you to the crowd for the support & looking forward to tomorrow.”
Some believed Riddle’s since-deleted posts were subliminal jabs at Zverev after the fourth-seeded pro was accused of assaulting his former girlfriend, Brenda Patea.
Zverev denied the allegations.
Riddle was busy working at Wimbledon on Tuesday, as seen in a series of videos on her Instagram Story.
The blonde beauty was seen with Rufus the Harris Hawk — known as “The Real Hawk-Eye” who keeps the pigeons at bay at Wimbledon — on her arm in one clip.
Another showed Riddle playing with a security dog named Flo.
A day earlier, Riddle celebrated Fritz’s five-set thriller against Zverev, writing, “Cheer louder ladies,” over one since-deleted post.
A separate clip featured Riddle sipping a drink and dancing around with the caption: “When ur mans wins for the girls.”
After the loss, Fritz and Zverev met at the net at Centre Court for a handshake, but their exchange lasted longer than expected.
“It’s all good,” Fritz said in a post-match interview. “He, obviously with his knee, it felt like in the fifth set he wasn’t moving as well. I just wished him the best.”
Zverev later explained he took issue with Frtiz’s supporters in his box “that are not maybe from the tennis world, that are not maybe (used to) watching every single match; they were a bit over the top” — and not with the 13th-seeded Frtiz or his coaches.
Zverev added that he was playing injured and that he “wasn’t 100 percent.”
Fritz brushed it off after the 4-6, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 victory.
“He’s totally allowed to be annoyed if they were being annoying. … That’s one of the things I asked him at the net, ‘Who was it?’” Fritz said. “It’s not a big thing. It’s all good.”
Fritz plays the 25th-seeded Italian Lorenzo Musetti in the quarterfinal on Wednesday.