After a hard-fought win over Kei Nishikori, French tennis player Arthur Rinderknech has advanced to the second round of Wimbledon. His opponent is none other than American star player Taylor Fritz. People won’t forget last year’s French Open when Fritz smashed Rinkdernech. When Rinkdernech talked about it ahead of their clash, netizens slammed him on X.
It was at the French Open 2023 when Taylor Fritz won 2-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 against Arthur Rinkdernech in the second round. As the US player beat a French local player at the Suzanne Lenglen court, the Paris crowd obviously didn’t welcome it.
The French crowd kept throwing verbal assaults at him and Fritz took it on his chin. But after the match was over and Rinkdernech lost, Fritz had had enough. He tried to silence the crowd who had come to watch their local star player. But that only further aggravated the matter and that made Taylor Fritz annoy Arthur Rinderknech.
Rinderknech felt that Fritz should’ve known that the French public wasn’t going to blow him ‘kisses’ after his win. Instead of blaming the crowd, he was rather angry with Fritz who wanted the crowd to be silent. Rinderknech felt Fritz should’ve understood the obvious.
Laced with such thoughts, and the pain of loss at Roland Garros against Fritz, Arthur Rinderknech made a spicy comment ahead of his clash with Fritz in Wimbledon. Rinderknech spoke to L’Equipe and said a few words, which can only be described as him keeping a grudge against Fritz.
When the Tennis Letter shared it on X, several fans who didn’t like Rinkdernech’s response, expressed their repugnance. Here’s how so many of them reacted:
Rinderknech is and always will be a clown.
— Jack Rutter (@JackRutterrr) July 3, 2024
Same guy that retired after kicking a wall right?
— Millsyyy6 (@Mr_Mi1ls) July 4, 2024
Fritz own the French it’s nothing new
— Stacexyz (@eustace_on23966) July 3, 2024
I’ve never seen Fritz nervous
— Julia Pessoa (@julialimapessoa) July 3, 2024
Rinderknech’s frustration and anger from last time is understandable. He is recalling the 2023 French Open clash, and using it to take a dig at Fritz but also fuel himself before the game. However, fans are not having it from him, as Rinderknech himself kicked a wall during one of his French Open matches this year and retired hurt as a result.
Rinderknech took on Thomas Etcheverry and the match was nicely poised at 3-6, 6-7 (8-10), 6-1, 5-0 when Rinderknech did the unthinkable. This in turn gave Etcheverry the walkover.
Will Taylor Fritz Respond to Arthur Rinderknech and Does He Enjoy Such Comments?
While players trash-talking about each other before a match happens in other sports, tennis isn’t usually one of them. But Rinderknech’s comments were enough to ignite a rivalry between him and Fritz. The only issue here is Fritz doesn’t really get affected by such words.
In an interview with CLAY in 2022, Taylor Fritz said that he enjoys the drama in tennis. He precisely described that younger audiences today in tennis, look forward to some sort of spice besides the match. Verbal arguments, exchange of words before or during a match, etc are welcome as far as Fritz is concerned.
This also speaks volumes about Taylor Fritz’s mentality. Owing to this never-care attitude, he might just hold the edge over Rinderknech in their game. If Rinderknech had hoped at all to shake up Fritz’s game with his comments ahead of the match, it may not work.
At the time of writing this report, Taylor Fritz was leading 5-2 in the first set.