Taylor Fritz has booked his place in the Wimbledon quarter-finals as he moves closer to winning his first major title. The American star's path to the last eight, where he will face Karen Khachanov, came easier than expected after Australia's Jordan Thompson retired from their match due to injury when trailing 6-1, 3-0 on Sunday.
It means that the 27-year-old has already matched his best runs at Wimbledon, but he has also never been too far from controversy in recent years at the All England Club. Fritz spoke out after he was forced to play his opening match against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard across two days. The match had controversially been stopped at 10.15pm, 45 minutes before curfew after Fritz had levelled the match to require a fifth set. However, it was his fiery exchange at Wimbledon last year that led former champion Pat Cash to question his behaviour.
Fritz faced his rival Arthur Rinderknech in the early rounds at SW19 in 2024. Tension between them had begun at the 2023 French Open after the American celebrated his victory by shushing the partisan crowd at Roland Garros. In the build-up to their Wimbledon rematch, Rinderknech said: "He (Fritz) won't cry as much. 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."
However, Fritz had the last word after his four-set Wimbledon victory, with the American revealing what he told his opponent after their post-match handshake. "When we shook hands, I just said, 'Have a nice flight home,'" Fritz admitted.
"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."
Former Wimbledon champion Cash called out Fritz's comments and said it would not make him popular with his peers. "Yeah that's not cool, that's not good," Cash told the BBC, as reported by tennis365. "That's not good, it's inappropriate and he doesn't have a lot of mates on this tour, does he?
"He doesn't really care, he wants to get out there and does his stuff, he's not overly friendly but he doesn't care. You're not going to get any more mates from saying, 'Have a [nice] flight home' though."
The drama continued to follow Fritz after he earned an impressive victory over Alexander Zverev. The American fought back from two sets down to win 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-6(3), 6-3, but his opponent took a slight issue with the level of noise coming from Fritz's box during the match.
To be the first to receive the latest Wimbledon news, join our WhatsApp community or Wimbledon newsletter
"I think there are 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," Zverev explained. "They were a bit over the top.
"That's okay. No issues. No drama. He fought back from two sets to love, so they're obviously all excited, very pumped up, yeah. But no issues with Taylor. I think Taylor is a great guy. I have absolutely no issues with him."
Before another impressive run at Wimbledon, world No.5 Fritz captured attention for a since-delated comment on social media. In the lead-up to his Wimbledon return, Fritz won the Eastbourne title and defeated Brazilian teenager Joao Fonseca during the tournament. Fritz appeared to take issue with the highlights package for the match, which he believed overly favoured his opponent, but his post led to a social media backlash.
"I'll make this very clear. I don't want to mess up what I'm saying," Fritz recently clarified. "There are naturally going to be more highlights of players that drive more engagement, and that's normal. That's fine. When I said that it was a clearly a joke. People think I'm complaining. I've had Brazilians telling me I'm a crybaby for the last month since I said it basically."
