Taylor Fritz told opponent Arthur Rinderknech to have a “nice flight home” in a fiery handshake after beating him to reach the third round of Wimbledon.
The American 13th seed was involved in a heated French Open clash with the Frenchman Rinderknech at Roland Garros last year, in which he shushed the rowdy home crowd after winning match point and was booed afterwards.
Rinderknech made reference to the match ahead of their Wimbledon meeting, and said in comments reported by French media: “The atmosphere will be quieter and he won’t cry as much.”
But Fritz won 6-3 6-4 3-6 6-4 and delivered a brutal put-down at the net as the players shook hands before revealing he had “extra fire” and motivation to beat Rinderknech after hearing his comments.
“I’m a very chill person,” Fritz said afterwards. “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.”
Fritz said it was hard not to see Rinderknech’s comments, which were posted all over social media before their rematch at Wimbledon.
“It’s tough not to [see the comments] when someone 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.”
