American tennis star Taylor Fritz was compelled to make an energetic defence of comments he made about rival Novak Djokovic.
Taylor Fritz once incurred the wrath of Novak Djokovic’s fanbase after joking about the Serb’s absence from the 2022 US Open. But the American fired back in kind with a feisty response insisting those taking offence to his comments clearly didn’t understand them in the first place.
The coronavirus pandemic was still a prevalent issue in the summer of 2022 when US policy meant non-citizens couldn’t compete without proof they had been vaccinated. That prohibited Djokovic from taking part in the competition, which most men’s players would agree boosts their own chances of winning.
Fritz, 27, made light of that very subject while gearing up for the fourth and final major of the year. He even partially campaigned for organisers to allow ‘Nole’ to play despite his non-vaccinated status, but the jokey tone of his comments were missed by many.
We’re not the most Covid-safe country in general with how we are doing things,” he said following a second-round win over Nick Kyrgios at the Cincinnati Open. “So it does seem like what’s the harm of letting the best player in the world come play the US Open?
But at the same time, I don’t know how I feel about making exceptions just for one person just because of who they are. So I see both sides of the argument. It’s good for every player if Novak is not in the draw [smiles].”
It’s perhaps unsurprising not everyone saw the funny side of those comments as they drew ire from legions of Djokovic’s supporters. So much so that Fritz felt the need to highlight how his jibe was purely a joke, and one meant to compliment his rival at that.
“Nothing new just me getting ripped for making a joke about Novak being better than everyone,” he wrote on X. “The issue with press transcripts is it’s just raw text and it’s not clear the manner in how things are said. What I jokingly said, felt like a compliment to Novak more than anything else.”
Both Djokovic and Fritz were knocked out of the Wimbledon semi-finals on Friday by Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz, respectively. That leaves the pair looking towards this year’s US Open as their last chance to get a hand on Grand Slam silverware in 2025.