Taylor Fritz is set to face Carlos Alcaraz in the semi-finals of the Six Kings Slam on Thursday, but the American has previously been slammed by a Wimbledon champion for his “inappropriate” behaviour
Pat Cash claimed that Taylor Fritz “doesn’t have a lot of mates on tour” after his behaviour at Wimbledon. It comes as the American ATP pro is set to face long-time rival Carlos Alcaraz on Thursday (October 16) at the Six Kings Slam.
The two met on the courts of SW19 this summer in the semi-finals, with World No. 1 Alcaraz getting the better of the 27-year-old in the final four with scores of 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 and 7-6. However, it was his actions at last summer’s tournament which forced Cash into delivering a scathing assessment of the star.
Fritz faced Arthur Rinderknech in the early rounds of Wimbledon in 2024, off the back of tensions that had begun a year earlier at Roland Garros. During the 2023 French Open, Fritz celebrated his win over Rinderknech by shushing the crowd in a move which was lambasted by many.
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This prompted Rinderknech to say in the build-up to Wimbledon 2024 of his opponent: “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 crowd would send him kisses in between points.”
However, Fritz has the final word after his four-set win on the courts of south west London, with the ATP No. 4 explaining what he told him at the net in the aftermath. He said: “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.”
As a result of Fritz’s stubborn antics, 1987 Wimbledon champion Cash gave the BBC a scathing assessment of the tennis pro for his “inappropriate” behaviour. As per tennis365, he said: “Yeah that’s not cool, 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.”
While Fritz will have relished in his win at the time, he didn’t make it much farther in the tournament, knocked out by Lorenzo Musetti in the quarter-finals in a five-set thriller. He is also yet to win a Grand Slam, with his best effort coming in the form of a loss to Jannik Sinner in the final of last year’s US Open.
It comes as Fritz is back in action on Thursday to face Alcaraz at the lucrative Six Kings Slam in Riyadh. The two are into the semi-finals of the tournament, with hopes of stamping their place in the final against either Sinner or Novak Djokovic, dependent on the result of their mirroring clash.
Fritz will hope for redemption over the 22-year-old as a result of losing the final of last month’s Japan open to him 6-4 6-4. And he may have a slight advantage as the two go to battle in Saudi Arabia.
That’s because Alcaraz is still currently nursing an injury to his ankle which he sustained in Japan. After pulling out of the Shanghai Masters to allow his body to recover, Alcaraz recently explained: “I’ve been recovering the ankle as much and as good as I can.
“I don’t feel, I would say, 100%, the doubts are there thinking about it a little bit when I’m moving on court. But I think it improved a lot and I’m going to compete and perform well here in the Six Kings Slam.”
