Former ATP player Pat Cash was not impressed by Taylor Fritz‘s behavior after he bested Arthur Rinderknech at the 2024 Wimbledon Championships.
The two players have a bit of history because they faced each other at the 2023 Roland Garros, which ended up being a very heated match. The Parisian crowd is known to be very rowdy, especially when a native player is playing, and they heavily backed Rinderknech in that match.
Fritz took exception to that because he felt that the behavior was unfair. He famously ‘shushed’ the crowd after the match, which created all sorts of drama. Rinderknech even commented on that, saying before their rematch at Wimbledon that ‘Fritz won’t cry as much this time.’
The American heard those comments and, after beating the Frenchman at SW19, told him at the net to ‘have a nice flight home.’ Cash was not thrilled with that, and he told the BBC that, in his eyes, Fritz’s move was ‘inappropriate’ given the stage.
“Yeah, that’s not cool, that’s not good. 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.”
Fritz didn’t care about the drama, as he openly confirmed what he said to the media. He also admitted that Rinderknech’s comments fired him up before that match, further motivating him to win it.
Competitiveness on the tennis court is generally welcome among tennis fans, but Cash is of the old guard of tennis players. There are certain things that may, in a sense, disrespect the opponent, and he felt that Fritz’s comments did just that.
