By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Thursday, July 4, 2024
Photo credit: Daniel Kopatsch/Getty
Some things are better left unsaid.
Taunt Taylor Fritz as a whiner, and you're not coming out a winner as Arthur Rinderknech learned today at Wimbledon.
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In a rematch of a contentious 2023 Roland Garros clash, Fritz defeated Rinderknech 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to reach the Wimbledon third round today following the Frenchman boldly trash-talking.
Afterward, Fritz said this match was over before it began.
That's because Rinderknech ripped Fritz as a whiner for his complaints about vocal French fans during that 2023 French Open clash.
In remarks to journalist Quentin Moynet Rinderknech jabbed Fritz saying he hoped the American wouldn't "cry as much" during this SW19 rematch.
"It's tough not to see it because everyone is just going to, like, tag me and make sure I see it," Fritz said of the pre-match trash talk. "As soon as I saw it, the match was basically over."
"[Fritz] won’t cry as much. He whined a bit saying it was too noisy," Rinderknech said in comments to Moynet. "I hold no grudge against him but he was wrong if he thought the crowd would send him kisses in between points."
Former Indian Wells champion said those remarks lit his competitive fire sparking the emphatic response.
Fourth of July emotional fireworks continued after the match ended.
When the feuding foes shook hands following Fritz's two hour, 17-minute win on No. 12 court, the American delivered the verbal parting shot.
"Have a nice flight home," Fritz said he told Rinderknech.
"It just gives me extra fire, obviously. I'm a very chill person," Fritz told the media at Wimbledon. "I, like, 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."
Ultimately, Fritz said his message for Rinderknech is simple: if you're going to deliver disrespect, don't discount the consequences coming.
"I said, Oh, congrats, good for you. Then he started acting like, Why are you blah, blah, blah?" Fritz said. "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."
The 2022 Wimbledon quarterfinalist Fritz improved to 8-1 on grass this season and will need to bring the fire in round three. Fritz faces 24th-seeded Chilean Alejandro Tabilo for a fourth round spot.
The left-handed Tabilo, who made history as the first Chilean man to win an ATP title on grass in Mallorca last month, advanced in five sets today scoring his sixth straight grass-court victory.