Nick Kyrgios has hailed ‘cheeky’ American tennis star Taylor Fritz for trolling Arthur Rinderknech after Thursday’s grudge match at Wimbledon 2024.
Kyrgios, 29, is still very much the bad boy of professional tennis but he was unable to compete at this year’s Championships over injury and is working for the BBC.
The Australian absolutely loved the drama at the end of the Fritz’s second-round win over Frenchman Rinderknech, insisting the sport ‘needs’ more feuds like this.
Fritz and Rinderknech got into a heated back-and-forth at the net after their match on Court 12, which the American 13th-seed won 6-3 6-4 3-6 6-4.
Rinderknech was told to ‘have a nice flight home’ by Fritz as he trolled his French opponent at the All England Club – in what was a rematch of their incredibly tense and feverish French Open clash last year.
At Roland-Garros in 2023, spectators booed and whistled Fritz for eliminating Rinderknech, and he responded by putting a finger to his lips and spreading his arms to wind-up the crowd, telling them: ‘Come on! I want to hear it!’
Rinderknech referenced that moment in the build-up to their showdown at Wimbledon 2024 and Fritz was left furious at what his opponent had to say.
‘He won’t cry as much,’ Rinderknech said about Fritz ahead of their Wimbledon clash, in reference to their battle in Paris. ‘He whined a bit saying it was too noisy. I hold no grudge against him but he was wrong if he thought the crowd would send him kisses in between points.’
Fritz, speaking in his post-match press conference after beating Rinderknech at Wimbledon, 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.’
Asked what happened at the end of the match after telling Rinderknech to enjoy his flight home, Fritz explained that the Frenchman pointed out he was still in doubles.
‘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’,’ Fritz added.
‘Don’t disrespect me before the match and then expect me to be all nice after the match.’
Kyrgios, a Wimbledon runner-up in 2022, reacted to the spat on social media and said: ‘This is what the sport needs. Taylor Fritz [is] cheeky.’
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