'Have A Nice Flight Home': Fritz Clashes With Wimbledon Opponent Over Previous Comments

Friday, 05 July 2024 at 00:00

byErik Virostko

Taylor Fritz showed that he's aware of the comments that his opponents make after his most recent match at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships.

Last year, the American played a very memorable match at the 2023 Roland Garros. He was taking on home player Arthur Rinderknech, and as it usually is with home players at Grand Slams, the French fans got behind their player.

Unfortunately for them, he wasn't able to win the match despite leading after taking the first set 6-2. Fritz was just too good, completing a comeback in the match to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 and progress at the clay-court major.

However, what made the match so iconic were the moments after the last point was played. The American celebrated heavily while pointing to his mouth, 'silencing' the French crowd, which didn't take it lightly.

They booed Fritz for over a minute as he was trying to give an interview on the court, and the incident had its second chapter at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships.

Once again, Fritz met Rinderknech, and the French player spoke about his opponent prior to the match, and he wasn't very nice when picking his words.

"The atmosphere will be quieter, and he 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 French crowd would send him kisses in between points."

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After the match, the American admitted that he had an added motivation to win the match, and he did that, beating his opponent 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to reach the third round of the grass-court Grand Slam.

As the two shook hands, Fritz told Rinderknech to 'have a nice flight home' and surprisingly, the French player seemed to be unaware of why his opponent addressed him such words, as the American explained after the match.

"As soon as I saw it, the match was basically over. 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."

Fritz explained that Rinderknech demanded to know why he was told those words at the net, to which the American player had a very simple response.

"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."