Taylor Fritz’s girlfriend, Morgan Riddle, retracted her Instagram story, which was interpreted as a potential dig toward Alexander Zverev. This left a noted tennis journalist, Ben Rothenberg, disappointed. Rothenberg has been a very vocal critic of Zverev being allowed to compete while under trial.

Recently, Riddle posted a story on her Instagram celebrating Fritz’s five-setter comeback win against the German.

“When your man wins 4 the girls,” Riddle wrote.

This led many fans to speculate that it was a veiled attack on Zverev’s domestic violence case. As a result, she later deleted the stories and also released a clarification.

“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. they were not about anything that’s happened off the tennis court & there’s no bad blood between anyone,” Riddle clarified.

This did not sit well with tennis journalist Ben Rothenberg, who said that the American influencer removing the story was ‘unsurprising’, considering the silence in ATP about the German’s domestic abuse accusation and subsequent court case.

“Morgan Riddle put this retraction up today…can’t say her statement is especially believable given the obvious context of yesterday’s posts, but it’s unsurprising that the culture of silence in the ATP around the Zverev abuse accusations remains incredibly strong,” Rothenberg wrote.

Taylor Fritz and Alexander Zverev’s controversial handshake at Wimbledon

Taylor Fritz fought back from two sets down to defeat Alexander Zverev in the fourth round at Wimbledon 2024. After the match, as the two approached the net for a customary handshake, the German seemed to stop and talk about something with Fritz. The conversation was not caught on camera, but the duo was questioned about it during the subsequent interviews.

In his post-match interview, Zverev said that someone ‘maybe not from the tennis world’ was going over the top while cheering for Fritz.

“His (Fritz’s) 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,” Zverev said.

Fritz revealed some details about the confrontation in an interview with Tennis Channel. He said that the World No. 4 was upset about some members of Fritz’s team cheering while he was injured.

“[Alexander Zverev] was just like, ‘good match; all good.’ I think he was a little upset about I guess my team members cheering for me when he was injured. But he said, you know, ‘Nothing to do with you – you’re all good,’ whatever. So I mean whatever, it’s all good,” Fritz said.