Tennis has a new It girl – 26-year-old Morgan Riddle, who the New York Times has dubbed “the most famous woman in men’s tennis”.
Girlfriend to US player Taylor Fritz, who has a career-high singles ranking of world No. 5 by the Association of Tennis Professionals, Riddle has also made a name for herself.
She’s been attracting plenty of attention while in Melbourne for the Australian Open, making headlines over the weekend for pledging to eat an entire jar of Vegemite on Instagram Live if Fritz defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in the fourth round.
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After 26-year-old won the match, Riddle now has a salty challenge coming her way, with Fritz telling Nine he assured her he would win.
“I won’t be partaking [in the challenge], but I’ll make sure it happens… I wasn’t the biggest fan,” he joked.
Watch the video above.
Riddle, a Minnesota native, has worked as an Instagram influencer and model for years, and met her tennis beau on the exclusive dating app Raya in early 2020, during the COVID pandemic.
The pair celebrated their third anniversary in June 2023.
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Fritz was 22, divorced and father to a child when they met, though this didn’t seem to phase Riddle, who moved in with the tennis star after a few weeks of dating.
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour has taken Fritz around the world, with Riddle travelling with him since 2021.
Unofficially the poster child for “TWAGs” (the tennis wives and girlfriends of grand slam regulars), Riddle began creating tennis-based content that grew her audience significantly.
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In 2022, she started creating TikToks on what to wear to the Australian Open, giving outsiders context to tennis’ coveted inner workings.
Gaining a following, she then started a YouTube channel that vlogged life on the 2023 tennis tour.
Speaking to The Age, Riddle revealed her social media intentions: “I cover the younger generation, the teenage girl fans of tennis because I think tennis, media and the sport in general underestimate how many of them there are.”
The Netflix series, Break Point, gave a behind-the-scenes look into the lives of tennis’ top players, following them around, all four Grand Slams and the ATP and WTA tours.
Featured in this series was Fritz, meaning Riddle also starred, where during the 2023 Wimbledon Championships, she started a short video series titled, “Wimbledon Threads”, covering fashion at the tournament.
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“To be recognised by a tournament of that prestige is just a big win for me and people taking me a little bit more seriously in the tennis world, to be honest, because that’s something that I’ve struggled with,” she explained to People.
“I guess the older, maybe more misogynist side of the tennis fan base is my biggest group of people that I’ve been working to win over a little bit.”
Boasting 420,000 TikTok followers and more than 14 million likes, she has quite the influence, recently sharing content of the Australian Open.
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Her significant fan base has meant she’s ranked No. 4 on Tennis Magazine’s Top 5 Must-Follow Accounts list, earning the title of “TikTok’s favourite tennis tour guide.”
Travelling alongside Riddle for 40 weeks of the year, the tennis has become a runway for the emerging style icon, debuting hundreds of chic court-side outfits to her fans.
Over the past few years, she has been featured in some of fashion’s most elite publications, including a video for Vogue, which she says was a career highlight.
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“Doing a video for Vogue was absolute top on my career bucket list so idk how I will top this. thank you guys so much,” Riddle wrote on Instagram.
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Fritz and Riddle are yet to be engaged or have children together, though Fritz had a son, Jordan, 6, at 19 years old with his now ex-wife, Raquel Pedraza, who is also a tennis player.
The couple continue their adorable relationship as Fritz is set to play Novak Djokovic on Wednesday.
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