NICK KYRGIOS PRAISES WIMBLEDON STAR OVER HEATED POST-MATCH SPAT WITH RIVAL

Taylor Fritz has been praised by Nick Kyrgios after bringing some controversial behaviour to Wimbledon in the Australian’s absence.

Kyrgios is commentating for the BBC at Wimbledon but is not competing due to long-term injury problems. That has left a space for a different player to pick up the mantle as the tournament’s bad boy – and it seems Fritz is gunning for that title.

The American No.13 seed beat Arthur Rinderknech 6-3 6-4 3-6 6-4 on Court 12 on Thursday afternoon in a feisty match which ended in acrimony. There had been a bit of needle between the pair following a meeting at the 2023 French Open in which Fritz was booed by the home crowd after knocking out the Frenchman.

Fritz reacted by goading the crowd – something that Rinderknech decided to bring up before their rematch in the second round at Wimbledon. "The atmosphere will be quieter [than at the French Open] and he won't cry as much,” he said. “He whined a bit saying it was too noisy. I hold no grudge against him but he was wrong if he thought the French crowd would send him kisses in between points.”

Those comments clearly fired Fritz up and, after securing his victory, the American was seen exchanging words with his opponent over the net during the handshake. He explained what was said during the heated exchange in his post-match press conference.

“It just gives me extra fire, obviously,” Fritz said. “I'm a very chill person. I don't do anything that could rub people the wrong way, so when someone kind of just goes out of their way to take a shot at me, then I'm not just going to take it. It gave me the extra fire to win.

“When we shook hands, I just said, ‘Have a nice flight home’. He asked me what I said. I told him what I said. He told me he was in doubles still. I said, ‘Oh, congrats, good for you’. Then he started acting like, ‘Why are you blah, blah, blah?’

“I'm like, ‘Dude, you know what you said’. You know what you said. Don't disrespect me before the match and then expect me to be all nice after the match. That's not how it works.”

That sort of beef may not be best suited to Wimbledon, where etiquette is valued highly, but it went down well with Kyrgios, who himself is no stranger to controversy. “This is what the sport needs,” Kyrgios posted on Twitter.

Asked whether he’d seen Rinderknech’s comments before the match, Fritz said: “Normally I don't, but it's tough not to when, obviously, someone kind of, I guess, goes out of their way to take a jab at you. It's tough not to see it because everyone is just going to, like, tag me and make sure I see it. As soon as I saw it, the match was basically over.”

2024-07-05T14:06:20Z dg43tfdfdgfd