The Wimbledon WAG causing a stir at SW19: Taylor Fritz’s American girlfriend Morgan Riddle, 27, ripped up the tournament’s fashion rulebook to ‘make it cooler’ – and has taken public swipes at other players

All eyes will be on Taylor Fritz this afternoon as he faces off against Carlos Alcaraz at Wimbledon what is expected to be a gripping game of tennis.

Among spectators at today’s semi-final will be Morgan Riddle – the 27-year-old fashion influencer who has been dating Fritz since 2020 – but the Minnesota native has proven a divisive figure both on and off Centre Court.

Over their five-year relationship, Morgan has emerged as one of tennis’ most recognisable faces – in part for her fashion choices and partly because of her social media presence.

Such is Morgan’s influence that the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club – which organises Wimbledon – recruited the content creator to host a style programme inspired by tennis fashion online.

Morgan, who has previously admitted she comes from more of a ‘hockey family’, was also named the ‘most famous woman in men’s tennis’ by The New York Times – with fans of the light-eyed, blonde beauty crediting her for making the sport more accessible to young women.

However, Morgan’s celebrity has been somewhat eclipsed by reports of her behaviour after she became embroiled in a feud with Fritz’s opponent Alexander Zverev last year when she sensationally alluded to assault allegations against the German tennis player. He has denied the claims.

She has also ruffled feathers by claiming Wimbledon is now a ‘global fashion spectacle’ – not just a sporting tournament – and had to defend herself against allegations she’s profiting off Fritz’s career. 

Comments under her Reels about Wimbledon-inspired fashion are overwhelmingly negative as tennis fans and purists argue the tournament always has been – and always will be – about tennis. 

None of this has stopped Morgan on her mission to reclaim the title of a ‘WAG’ and remains intent on ‘making her own name’ in the tennis space – as she told Harper’s Bazaar she has brought ‘a younger demographic to the game’ currently dominated by Gen Z sports stars like Alcaraz, Emma Raducanu, and Coco Gauff.

Her Instagram bio claims she ‘isn’t cool’ but her outfits are – with Fritz’s jet-setting girlfriend often spotted in period-inspired lace dresses, Chanel creations, and rare vintage finds like the Chloe frock once worn by Gisele Bundchen. 

She uses her platform to document everything that goes on behind-the-scenes at some of the world’s most high-profile tennis tournaments – thanks to her front-row access pass as Fritz’s girlfriend. 

The content creator has also accrued a platform after posting her incredible ‘fits’ on Instagram. 

Most recently, she cheekily quipped at the British weather at Wimbledon – where she has been cheering Taylor on – as she zipped up warm to shield herself from the rain.

Elsewhere, her TikTok has been filled with ‘GRWM to watch my boyfriend play’ videos. 

Speaking to Vogue last year, Morgan admitted she goes ‘all in’ and enjoys ‘theme dressing’ at tournaments. 

‘It’s super fun,’ she added. ‘I feel like I’m just playing dress-up all the time. What more could 10-year-old Morgan have wanted?’

Elsewhere this month, Morgan also told Harper’s Bazaar that she ‘fully embraces the WAG thing’.

‘I knew no matter what my feelings were on it, that’s what I’d be called – so I never wanted to attach anything negative to it,’ she explained. ‘Instead, I wanted to shift people’s perspective on the word.’

She compared it to the discourse on influencers. ‘People immediately think ‘urgh’ and part of that is rooted in misogyny,’ she continued.

‘Fashion content creation is a female-led environment, so people criticise it. The same thing has happened in the WAG world, despite the fact that most WAGs are educated, run their own businesses and have good jobs. On top of that, these women also have the full-time job of supporting their partner. I’m not sure people understand and respect that.’ 

She also proudly declared she ‘came in swinging’ into the tennis space and was intent on ‘making her own name in it’. 

The influencer explained that while people may ‘think of a WAG as someone who follows their partner around without having their own life’, she ‘knows for a fact that she has brought a younger demographic to the game, and a younger, female-led audience too’ through her content.

She told the outlet that it was the hit show Ugly Betty that inspired her to want to move away to New York City when she was young, and growing up in Minnesota – leading to an English degree in Wagner College on Staten Island.

There, according to her LinkedIn, Morgan upheld an impressive 3.7 GPA, was president of Student Alumni Association and took part in the Alpha Delta Pi National Sorority among other accolades.

After graduating, she hustled through a series of internships before landing a real estate gig at Compass, an agency in NYC.

She was there from 2018 to 2019, before moving into the social media space by taking up projects with The Food Network and Love Your Melon.

Morgan has also worked with Hollywire, MuteSix and GamesOutreach before becoming self-employed in 2022.

She now describes herself as a ‘full-stack media creator with the proven ability to develop, write, shoot, edit and produce video content across social channels’.

Now, she has more than a million combined followers across her TikTok, Instagram and YouTube where she shares both longform and shortform clips of everything about the tennis world.

It’s led to a myriad of opportunities, including hosting Wimbledon Threads – a series about fashion at the event – as well as appearing on the Netflix series Break Point with her tennis partner beau Fritz. 

However, not everyone is happy about Morgan’s collaboration with several tennis fans questioning ‘connection’ to the sport beyond her personal relationship with Fritz – and why she was chosen over fashion-forward players like Coco Gauff and Naomi Osaka. 

In one instalment of the Wimbledon Threads series about ‘Tenniscore’ style, Morgan declared ‘something shifted’ as ‘the strictly sporting event’ Wimbledon has turned into ‘a global fashion spectacle’.

Pre-empting criticism, she added: ‘I know some of you may not want to hear that, but just because the fact annoys you, doesn’t make it any less true’.

‘Who is this player? Only tennis please,’ one comment under Morgan’s divisive video about Wimbledon-inspired fashion looks.

Another person said it was ‘rather curious’ Morgan was chosen to present Wimbledon threads considering she has previously stated tennis wasn’t part of her life growing up in Minnesot where ‘not a soul plays’ the sport.

Several people felt female tennis stars such as Coco Gauff, Naomi Osaka, and Marta Kostyuk, who have a ‘genuine connection’ to the game but are also interested in fashion, would have been better suited to front the style blog.

A third person complained about ‘her behaviour’ courtside as they added: ‘Why is she getting airtime??’

‘Stick to tennis please,’ a similar comment read, branding Morgan’s video ‘basic abhorrence’.

Another defiantly added: ‘Wimbledon is all about tennis and we are here only for tennis’.

Speaking to the New York Times in 2023 – in a piece that saw her dubbed ‘the most famous woman in men’s tennis’ – Morgan explained how she first met Taylor in the first few months of the pandemic.

Morgan, whose parents are ‘a public radio executive and a guided tour fisherman’, had just moved to California and they watched gruesome horror flick Midsommar on their first date.

However, Taylor told the outlet that he ‘prefaced’ what being with him would be like.

‘I was like: “Look, this is not how it’s going to be. I don’t have this free time. I’m going to be traveling, like, every single week”,’ he explained.

‘But I also said, “You know, it’s not a bad deal – you can travel all over the world, if you’re up for it.”‘

After just a few weeks together, the couple moved in together. 

And he has since praised her influence on him time and time again, explaining that she helps him take care of himself and make sure he’s getting enough rest. 

The proof is in the pudding – when he met Morgan, Taylor was ranked 24th. Now, he is number five. 

 ‘Yeah, I mean, there’s been a pretty constant, I guess, results and ranking rise since we’ve been together,’ he told talkSport this week.

‘I think I would have to say she’s been a big help to me just kind of keeping me focused, having someone who cares and just pushes you to just do better and do the right things, be healthier.

‘But just having someone to push you in the right direction all the time, supporting you, it helps a lot.’

Meanwhile, on her Insta stories, Morgan earlier this month shared a snap of statistics reflecting how anxious she’d been after her boyfriend’s unfinished match at the beginning of the tournament.

The notification detailed how on a normal day, Morgan experiences 1 hours and 15 minutes of stress, yet on Wimbledon‘s opening day which saw Taylor go up against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, that figure shot up to 4 hours and 15 minutes.

She captioned the image: ‘Huh wonder why’, hinting that watching her man wasn’t easy. 

And in 2024 her impassioned responses while spectating saw one of Taylor’s rivals complain. 

After a five-set thriller between the US star and Alexander Zverev, the latter expressed his displeasure over the noise coming from Taylor’s box, where Morgan was seated.

Adding to the intrigue was a curious social media post from Morgan that many saw as a reference to 2020 domestic abuse claims against Alexander – which he denied.

She later deleted an Instagram video that included the caption: ‘when your man wins 4 the girls.’

Morgan had posted a picture of the court to her story and wrote, ‘cheer loud ladies.’ That post was also taken down.

After that match, Taylor sat down for an interview with The Tennis Channel and shed light on the feud – following a discussion with Alexander on court.

He explained: ‘I think he was a little upset about my team members cheering for me when he was injured but he said: “It’s nothing to do with you. You’re all good…” Whatever, it’s all good.’

Alexander said afterwards that he was upset with some people in Taylor’s box who ‘may not be from the tennis world.’

 Earlier this year, Morgan also admitted that she was fed up with people who accuse her of using her boyfriend for her online content. 

She specifically targeted social-media trolls and tennis’ ‘older wives’ who she said look down at what she does for a living.

‘Historically, a lot of the older wives and partners on the [tennis] tour have been very private, heads down, in the box,’ she said on ‘The Squeeze’ Podcast. 

‘They’re there to cheer on their partner and they didn’t have super public personas.’

‘I think [the backlash happened] because it’s different,’ Morgan added. ‘People expected me to sit in the box, be relatively private and not capitalize on my partner’s career. And I kind of came in guns blazing. I was like, “Well, f*** that” and posted whatever I wanted to.’ 

Despite appearing to be ostracised by other tennis WAGs, she maintains her relationship with Taylor is as strong as ever.  

He has been in the public eye longer than his girlfriend, as he turned pro in 2017. He coached his girlfriend on how to deal with outside attention to their romance. 

‘Taylor has always been really good about [blocking out the noise],’ Morgan said. ‘When it first started happening, I would be like, “Oh my gosh, look at what this person said” and he’d be like, “Why are you reading that?”‘

‘He went pro when he was 17 so he has dealt with that for so much, much longer than I had,’ she added. ‘So he was very helpful in coaching me through that.’

 In an interview with People magazine in 2023, Morgan also reflected on her and Fritz’s ‘collective goal’ of making tennis ‘cooler in our generation’. 

‘I think that he appreciates that we both have this ‘collective goal of bringing it to a younger crowd. He does his part of it and I do mine,’ she said. ‘I remember when him and I first met, within the first week or two, one of the things that he told me is, “I just want tennis to be cooler in our generation.” It’s just not.’

She also told the outlet how travelling with Taylor – with the couple thought to be on the move an estimated 30 weeks of the year – has been a dream come true for her since she was a child.

‘I was one of those girls that was obsessed with the Bali travel videos and stuff,’ she explained.

‘But I grew up from a much more low middle-class background in Minnesota that just wasn’t accessible to me ever. I never really believed that I would be able to see the world in that way.’

‘We travel so well together, which people always ask me, “How do you guys spend that much time in a hotel room together without wanting to rip each other’s heads off?”. But we get along really well, which is why I think we’ve been able to make it work the last couple years.’

Morgan has also spoken about how the Wimbledon fashion scene has exploded in the last few years, now dubbing it ‘absolute style nirvana’.

However, while she enjoys making content about her looks, she admitted that tennis looks can be a little ‘uppity’.

‘There is a certain level of expectation of how partners look, and have mixed feelings on it; I try not to read into it too much.’