Morgan Riddle is the girlfriend of tennis star Taylor Fritz and has proven to be quite the controversial figure in the sport. The influencer was in attendance at Wimbledon on Monday as No.13 seed Fritz defeated Alexander Zverev to reach the quarter-finals.

It appears that Zverev, who was carrying an injury, took exception to Riddle’s celebrations in the players’ box during the five-set clash that ended in Fritz’s favour. For her part, Riddle also seemed to rub salt in Zverev’s wounds by raving about the result on social media in posts that have since been deleted. She then subsequently released a statement about her reaction to Zverev, claiming ‘the misunderstanding had blown out of proportion’.

Riddle, 26, has gained a large following for providing a behind-the-scenes look at tennis and the lifestyle that comes with following Fritz’s career. Branded the ‘most famous woman in men’s tennis’ by the New York Times last summer, the model’s fresh perspective on the sport has often divided opinion.

Who is Morgan Riddle?

Growing up in Minneapolis, Minnesota before moving to New York, Riddle graduated from Wagner College with an English degree in 2019. She initially worked as an estate agent before working for social media and marketing companies.

However, she had already begun uploading personal lifestyle content during her time in college and worked as a model. In 2022, Riddle left her job to produce tennis-related content.

She has just over 500k followers on TikTok and more than 300k on Instagram. She hosted the Wimbledon Threads fashion series last year and has been prominent on social media throughout the tournament this summer.

Relationship with Taylor Fritz

Shortly after moving to LA in 2020, Riddle connected with Fritz on the exclusive dating app Raya. A year later, she began attending his matches and eventually left her job in 2022 to focus on following Fritz’s career and provide a tennis insider’s view on social media

Riddle has spoken of her embarrassment that the pair met on a dating site, but they recently celebrated four years together. The couple also appeared on the Netflix series Breaking Point in 2023.

Asked about her knowledge of tennis before meeting Fritz, Riddle told ATP: “I didn’t know a thing. Literally not a thing. I knew who Federer was. I didn’t even know who Nadal was. That’s not a joke. I literally didn’t know anything about it. But I know a lot now. I would consider myself a tennis expert at this point, I really would.”

‘Make tennis cool again’ controversy

Given her lack of tennis background, Riddle has sought to educate other outsiders about the sport. In 2022, she declared that she was “on a personal mission to make tennis cool again” as part of a video that went viral on TikTok and has since been deleted.

The 26-year-old gave an overview of how tennis works and her experience attending high-profile tournaments. While it was well-received by some, Riddle faced backlash for saying: “I know tennis is relatively uncool and unknown in America.”

However, Fritz defended his girlfriend when quizzed about the video during the 2022 Indian Wells Masters tournament, which he won after defeating Rafael Nadal in the final. The world No.12 insisted he was a big supporter of Riddle’s attempts to usher in a new type of tennis fan.

“I think what she did was awesome for our sport. It got a ton of people looking at it,” he said. “I think you get your typical older fan who may be upset about it. I don’t understand how anyone can get upset about it.

“I’m the one that’s a professional tennis player, I’m the one that does this for a living. I 100% agree with everything in that video.”

Fritz also replied to his girlfriend’s TikTok video, writing: “For anyone disagreeing with the fact it’s ‘relatively uncool in USA’ let me know how often tennis is talked [about] on SportsCenter or ESPN.”