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Carlos Alcaraz admits he is “excited” about the challenge of facing a fit and in-form Jack Draper ahead of their Indian Wells semi-final clash.

Second seed Alcaraz and 13th seed Draper meet in the second of two men’s singles semi-finals in Tennis Paradise, after 12th seed Holger Rune takes on fifth seed Daniil Medvedev.

It is Draper’s first semi-final at Masters 1000 level, while Alcaraz is the two-time defending Indian Wells champion.

The Spaniard leads the head-to-head between the two 3-1 and is arguably the favourite to prevail, having lost just twice in 22 matches at the tournament.

However, two of his victories over Draper have come via retirement, with the Brit retiring injured in the fourth round of Indian Wells two years ago, and in the fourth round of the Australian Open this January.

Alcaraz defeated Draper 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 when they met at the 2022 Swiss Indoors, while Draper prevailed 7-6(3), 6-3 when they met at the Queen’s Club last summer.

World No 14 Draper has risen up the rankings significantly in recent months, and world No 3 Alcaraz believes the “ambitious” Brit will prove a dangerous opponent.

“Well, I think he has a lot of rhythm, a lot of pace, great shots,” said the four-time Grand Slam champion.

“I think his style of play suits pretty well to these conditions. I think his forehand with topspin bounces a lot, and [he has a] big serve.

“I mean, the times that I have played against him, I think two of them he got injured, and the last one recently in Australia, so I’m just excited about playing him again.

“It seems he’s in really good shape right now. I think he’s ambitious, and he always go for it – so that’s makes him a really tough opponent.

“I’m pretty sure he’s going be one of the toughest on the tour in the future or in the next year.

“I’m just really happy to share these kind of moments with him. I also think it’s going to be a really good match to watch and to play.”

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Alcaraz is on a 16-match winning streak in Tennis Paradise, just three short of Novak Djokovic’s record of 19 consecutive wins at the tournament.

And, he will need to win his semi-final against Draper to keep his hopes alive of emulating a special Djokovic and Roger Federer feat.

The Serbian and the Swiss are the only players in Indian Wells history to win three straight titles at the event, doing so from 2014-16 and 2004-06, respectively.

Having triumphed in both 2023 and 2024, Alcaraz is potentially just two wins away from matching that accomplishment.

The 21-year-old beat Medvedev in both those finals, and a third straight championship match between the two is a distinct possibility.

There is also plenty on the line for Draper in this semi-final clash.

Should he triumph, he would be projected to break into the top-10 of the ATP Rankings for the first time, moving up to world No 8 in the live rankings.

He would also be the fifth Brit to reach the Indian Wells final, following in the footsteps of Greg Rusedski, Tim Henman, Andy Murray, and 2021 champion Cameron Norrie.

Read Next: 2025 Indian Wells semi-final line-up makes history as next-gen lead the way

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Action in Indian Wells is coming to a close, and already some significant moves in the WTA Rankings have been set for next Monday’s update.

Here, we look at who will be the big winners – and losers – from a rankings perspective once the tournament has concluded.

WTA Top 10 pre-Indian Wells

1) Aryna Sabalenka, 9,076
2) Iga Swiatek, 7,985
3) Coco Gauff, 6,333
4) Jessica Pegula, 5,251
5) Madison Keys, 4,679
6) Jasmine Paolini, 4,518
7) Elena Rybakina, 4,328
8) Emma Navarro, 4,009
9) Zheng Qinwen, 3,780
10) Paula Badosa, 3,746

Sabalenka was guaranteed to stay as the world No 1 no matter what happened in Indian Wells, with world No 2 Swiatek defending 1,000 ranking points after lifting the title 12 months previously.

Elsewhere, world No 3 Gauff was defending semi-final points at the event, looking to stay in touch with Sabalenka and Swiatek – and ahead of compatriots Pegula and Keys in the battle for US No 1.

Further down the top 10, Badosa’s pre-tournament withdrawal opened the door for the likes of Mirra Andreeva, who had initially made her top-10 debut earlier this season before being pushed back to world No 11.

WTA Live Ranking (as of 15/03/2025)

1) Aryna Sabalenka, 9,606
2) Iga Swiatek, 7,375
3) Coco Gauff, 6,063
4) Jessica Pegula, 5,361
5) Madison Keys, 5,004
6) Jasmine Paolini, 4,518
7) Elena Rybakina, 4,448
8) Mirra Andreeva, 4,360
9) Zheng Qinwen, 3,985
10) Emma Navarro, 3,859

A significant swing in ranking points will see Sabalenka extend her advantage over Swiatek, having made the final – while the Pole was beaten in the last four.

Andreeva’s win over Swiatek extends her winning run to 11 matches and also cements her position in the top 10, with a new career-high guaranteed.

Elsewhere, Gauff dropped 270 ranking points after her fourth-round exit, losing ground on world No 1 Sabalenka – and also losing a chunk of her lead over Pegula and eventual semi-finalist Keys.

The Big Winners

One big winner is world No 1 Sabalenka, who looks primed for a significant stay at the very top of the women’s game thanks to her run to the final.

After losing in Round 4 a year ago, her return to the Indian Wells final – after her 2023 runner-up finish – has already seen her earn 530 points, provisionally moving to 9,606 points.

Should she beat Andreeva in Sunday’s final, the Belarusian would move to 9,956 ranking points, and hold a significant 2,581-point lead over Swiatek, who has dropped 650 points.

It is already good news for Andreeva, who looks set to reach a career-high of world No 8 thanks to a live points score of 4,360 – earning an extra 640 points as things stand.

However, should she prevail in the final, she would move to 4,710 points, and leap five places to a new high of world No 6, usurping both Rybakina and Paolini.

Further down the WTA Rankings, Donna Vekic is set to rise three places and jump back into the top 20 as the world No 19, while Liudmila Samsonova moves up four spots to No 21.

There is also good news for quarter-finalist Belinda Bencic, who is set to rise back into the top 50.

The Swiss, currently 58th in the world, is projected to rise to world No 45 as she continues her impressive return from maternity leave.

While Sonay Kartal, one of the biggest stories of the tournament, will leap 20 spots to a new career-high of world No 63.

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The Big Losers

At the very top of the game, the biggest loser is perhaps Swiatek.

While she is still comfortably the world No 2, the Pole now faces an uphill battle to regain the world No 1 ranking, especially with big points to defend in Madrid, Rome, and Roland Garros in the coming months.

However, Maria Sakkari is perhaps the biggest ranking victim of the tournament, with the former world No 3 set to fall outside of the top 50 after her third-round exit to Gauff.

Having already fallen outside the top 30 amid form and injury issues in 2024, last year’s runner-up has dropped a significant 585 points and is projected to be the world No 51 come Monday.

There is also bad news for Emma Raducanu, who dropped 55 ranking points after her round-one exit failed to match her run to the third round in 2024.

The Brit will fall five places from world No 55 to world No 60, and it is a very similar story for former world No 1 Naomi Osaka.

Osaka also dropped 55 points after losing in the opening round, and falls from world No 56 to world No 61.

Read Next: The 5 youngest women to reach the Indian Wells final: Mirra Andreeva joins all-time greats

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Mirra Andreeva defeated Elina Svitolina 7-5, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals at the WTA 1000 event in Indian Wells, and will next face Iga Swiatek. However, the Russian isn’t taking anything for granted, after having beat the Pole in her previous event.

The 17-year-old is now on a 10-match winning streak, the first women’s player under the age of 18 to reach such a feat since Nicole Vaidisova in 2005.

Andreeva won her second – and, by far, the biggest – title of her career in February, at the WTA 1000 event in Dubai.

Along the way, she became the first woman since Maria Sharapova in 2004 to beat three Grand Slam champions at the same event.

“I started to feel it [the confidence] during the tournament in Dubai, but I can say that I got a little help from my sports psychologist that I’m still working with,” stated Andreeva.

“I can say that, you know, it helped me a lot to realize a lot of things and to change something in the way I think during the match or before the match. Also, it helps me to go in the match with the right mindset, and, you know, I think that that was kind of the key for me.

“I can say that it’s working. It’s not bad. So I’m just super happy that I can see the result.”

One of those such Grand Slam champions was Swiatek, herself, who Andreeva defeated 6-3, 6-3 with a stunning performance.

“Yeah, of course it’s always nice to beat a top player. It was my first win over her,” said the Russian, when asked about her semi-final.

“You know, it doesn’t give me any benefit to our match tomorrow, because what happened happened, and the past is in the past.

“Tomorrow is going to be a new day, new match, new conditions, new country. Everything is different.

“You know, I’m going to try my best to prepare in the best way for our match tomorrow, and I’m sure that the match is going to be great, because our head-to-head is 1-All. I think it’s going to be an entertaining match, and we’re just going to see who is going to be better tomorrow.”

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Meanwhile, Swiatek already gained some ‘revenge’ over another rival – Zheng Qinwen – who she fell to in a heartbreaking semi-final match at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“It’s not nice to lose to anybody, so for sure you want to have a little, I don’t know, like revenge, but it’s nothing personal. I think every player has that against everybody who they lose to before,” said the five-time Grand Slam champion.

“This was the only match that I lost against Qinwen and I wanted to learn from it, it didn’t really cross my mind that much, because I knew that this is on hard court and I knew what I did wrong in the Olympics.

“Honestly, I would say that clay didn’t help me on the Olympics, because these high spinny balls that came into place, it’s much easier to go forward and to play them when you know exactly how the ball is going to bounce. On clay, you can’t really do that.

“For sure, it was tricky then. Here I thought it’s going to be more clear, and that’s what happened.”

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The 2025 edition of the Indian Wells Masters event has made ATP history, with the singles semi-final line-up featuring three players all born in the 21^st century – a first in that category (or at Grand Slam level, for that matter).

Carlos Alcaraz, Holger Rune – both born in 2003 – and Brit Jack Draper, born in 2001, have all made their way into the last four at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

In an era defined by three players all born in the 1980s, perhaps this statistic further represents the quickly changing landscape of men’s tennis.

It should also be noted that Daniil Medvedev – born in 1996  – fills the fourth semi-final spot, having beaten Frenchman Arthur Fils in a dramatic third-set tiebreak.

Carlos Alcaraz

The youngest of the three, Carlos Alcaraz is simply on a roll at the Indian Wells event.

Alcaraz has won 32 of his last 34 sets in the desert and is just two match wins away from winning three consecutive titles at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden – something done by only two other players, Roger Federer (2004-06) and Novak Djokovic (2014-16).

The Spaniard was victorious over Francisco Cerundolo, who had produced a sensational performance against Alex de Minaur in the previous round, beating him 6-3, 7-6(4).

After the victory, the four-time Grand Slam champion stated: “Well, I think today was a little bit tougher than yesterday.

“I think it was more wind, colder. So the conditions was really tough. But, you know, I think I didn’t play as good as yesterday, but I think, I mean, tennis is about not having a great day every day.

“So you have to play with your best that day. I think today I just survived. I just save, you know, a lot of breakpoints, a lot of chances to his favor. Just really happy about it. Yeah, I think I just played decent match or a good match with that conditions.”

Holger Rune

Born just one month before Alcaraz, Holger Rune has now made the semi-finals in three of the last 4 Masters 1000 events and will be seeking a maiden final at that level.

The Dane made his first quarter-final in Indian Wells in 2024, before losing to Daniil Medvedev – who he will compete against in the last four.

Rune defeated the tricky Tallon Griekspoor, 5-7, 6-0, 6-3 in even trickier conditions, overcoming both his opponent and the strong winds.

“I think today I lost the first set, and things in my mind in the beginning of the second set were a bit tough, because I feel like, you know, no matter what I did, he had an answer to a lot of it,” said the former world No 4.

“I had to change the game plan, and I started playing differently. I saw that it started to hurt him more, so I kept going. Obviously I think I managed to play a way that he didn’t like as much as previously.

“I think I did my part today. I found a way to win, and that’s what matters.”

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Jack Draper

Brit Jack Draper is the eldest of the three 2000s-born semi-finalists, but looks in similarly impressive form.

Draper reached the final of the Qatar Open in February and has carried on the sensational form at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.

En route to the last four, the 23-year-old has beaten Joao Fonseca, Jenson Brooksby, Taylor Fritz, and Ben Shelton – beating the latter 6-4, 7-5 to reach his first semi-final.

Draper will next face Alcaraz, who he recently lost to at the 2025 Australian Open.

“I’m always proud of myself, always looking at what I’m doing and thinking that I’m doing a good job and stuff like that,” stated the semi-finalist.

“Unfortunately, obviously in tennis you’re in a sport where there is always the next match and you have to prove yourself every time.

“Certainly for myself, my mindset, unfortunately that, as well, I feel like I’m never content with anything. I always want to have more wins and more opportunities to play top players.”

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Emma Raducanu’s tumultuous 2025 season has been boosted after it was confirmed that the 22-year-old would be in action for Great Britain in the Billie Jean King Cup this April.

Former US Open champion Raducanu has struggled at times in 2025, with just three wins in nine matches to her name so far.

The Brit was beaten in straight sets by Moyuka Uchijima in her opening match in Indian Wells last week, in her first tournament since her nightmare stalking ordeal at the Dubai Tennis Championships.

Raducanu will next be in action at the Miami Open, which starts next week, though the world No 55 will again be unseeded – meaning she will face a seed in round two should she win her opening match.

However, Billie Jean King Cup action could provide a much-needed confidence boost for the former world No 10 when action takes place across April 10-12.

The 22-year-old joins British No 1 Katie Boulter, Indian Wells breakout star Sonay Kartal, Harriet Dart, and doubles specialist Olivia Nicholls in captain Anne Keothavong’s squad.

Great Britain will head to The Hague in the Netherlands for the Qualifiers and will face the host nation and Germany as they look to seal their spot in the Billie Jean King Cup Finals.

The nation reached the semi-final of the competition last November, with Raducanu playing a starring role for her country.

Raducanu beat Germany’s Jule Niemeier in Round 1, Canada’s Rebecca Marino in the quarter-final, and Slovakia’s Viktoria Hruncakova in the semi-finals last Autumn.

Overall, the Brit holds a 6-1 win-loss record in Billie Jean King Cup action – an impressive record that she will look to build on next month.

With British No 1 Boulter and in-form Kartal part of the squad, Great Britain are arguably the favourites to progress from their qualifying group.

The Germany squad will be led by the likes of Niemeier, Laura Siegemund, and Eva Lys, while Suzan Lamens and Arantxa Rus lead the Dutch team.

Raducanu is far from the only big name set to represent her nation in the Qualifiers next month.

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Though Coco Gauff and Madison Keys will be absent, a strong USA team will be led by world No 4 Jessica Pegula and Danielle Collins.

Pegula and Collins will be joined by McCartney Kessler and doubles specialists Desirae Krawczyk and Asia Muhammad in Bratislava, where they will face Slovakia and Denmark.

Former Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina will be part of the Kazakhstan squad that faces Australia and Colombia in Brisbane.

Meanwhile, Elina Svitolina and Marta Kostyuk will head to Radom for Ukraine’s qualifiers versus a Belinda Bencic-led Switzerland and Poland.

Hosts Poland will be without the services of Iga Swiatek, while Naomi Osaka will also not represent Japan in their home qualifiers versus Canada and Japan.

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Carlos Alcaraz fell just one match short of an epic Rafael Nadal milestone as he made Indian Wells history thanks to Thursday’s quarter-final triumph.

World No 3 Alcaraz battled past the elements and a tricky Francisco Cerundolo to keep his campaign alive in Tennis Paradise, seeing off the 25th seed 6-3, 7-6(4).

It was undoubtedly the toughest test of Alcaraz’s campaign so far, with the second seed having steamrolled through his first three matches.

Speaking afterwards, the 21-year-old admitted it had been challenging to find his best tennis amid blustery conditions that affected all players in the desert on Thursday.

“Well, I think today was a little bit tougher than yesterday,” said Alcaraz. “I think it was more wind, colder. So the conditions were really tough.

“But, you know, I think I didn’t play as good as yesterday, but I think, I mean, tennis is about not having a great day every day. So you have to play with your best that day.

“I think today I just survived. I just save, you know, a lot of breakpoints, a lot of chances to his favor. Just really happy about it.

“I think I just played a decent match or a good match with those conditions.”

Victory for Alcaraz was a 16th straight win in Indian Wells for the Spaniard, who is the two-time defending champion at the Masters 1000 event.

It was also his 20th win at the tournament in the space of just 22 career matches in Indian Wells, his only defeats coming to Andy Murray in 2021 and Rafael Nadal in 2022.

No man in history has ever won 20 matches so quickly in Indian Wells as Alcaraz has now done, and only Rafael Nadal has hit that milestone faster across all Masters 1000 events.

It took the 22-time Grand Slam champion only 21 matches to hit 20 match wins in both Monte Carlo and Rome, both tournaments on his beloved clay courts.

While Alcaraz may have just missed out on matching a Nadal milestone, the chance to emulate one of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer’s greatest feats looks more than possible.

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To date, Djokovic and Federer are the only two men to win three consecutive Indian Wells titles, with Djokovic doing so from 2014-16 and Federer from 2005-06.

Alcaraz is potentially just two wins from matching the two all-time greats and joining them in that exclusive club.

And, with the way the draw has panned out, the four-time Grand Slam champion is arguably a warm favourite to do just that.

Second seed Alcaraz is the only top-four seed to have made the semi-final, with Alexander Zverev, Taylor Fritz, and Casper Ruud having all fallen by the wayside.

To join Djokovic and Federer in the Indian Wells history books, Alcaraz will first need to beat 13th seed Jack Draper in Saturday’s semi-final.

Should he do that, he would then face 12th seed Holger Rune or fifth seed Daniil Medvedev – who he has beaten in the final the past two years – in the final.

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Iga Swiatek’s rampant Indian Wells form continued on Thursday as she comfortably sealed her semi-final spot with a victory over eighth seed Zheng Qinwen.

Having not dropped a set across her opening three matches, dropping just six games in total, the world No 2 defeated the Chinese 6-3, 6-3 to keep her title defence alive.

It was Swiatek’s first match against Qinwen since a heartbreaking defeat to the world No 9 at the Olympic Games last summer, with the Chinese beating the Pole in straight sets on her way to the gold medal.

Though she had beaten the Chinese in all six of their previous meetings ahead of Paris 2024, and now leads the head-to-head 7-1, Swiatek admitted “revenge” was on her mind this time around.

“I want to show myself and everybody that I can do it, and I already knew before the Olympics match, I know now,” said Swiatek.

“It’s not nice to lose to anybody, so for sure you want to have a little, I don’t know, like revenge, but it’s nothing personal. I think every player has that against everybody who they lose to before.

“This was the only match that I lost against Qinwen and I wanted to learn from it, it didn’t really cross my mind that much, because I knew that this is on hard court and I knew what I did wrong in the Olympics.

“Honestly, I would say that clay didn’t help me on the Olympics, because these high spinny balls that came into place, it’s much easier to go forward and to play them when you know exactly how the ball is going to bounce. On clay, you can’t really do that.

“For sure, it was tricky then. Here I thought it’s going to be more clear, and that’s what happened.”

Swiatek’s victory places her into a fourth consecutive semi-final in Indian Wells.

The five-time Grand Slam champion defeated Simona Halep in her 2022 semi-final and Marta Kostyuk in 2024, while losing to eventual champion Elena Rybakina in 2023.

The world No 2 has now made history by becoming the first woman to reach four consecutive semi-finals at the event since the tournament introduced a women’s event in 1989.

And, yet more history could await for Swiatek over the next three days.

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Should Swiatek go on to successfully defend her title, she would become the first woman to win the title on three separate occasions.

Currently, Swiatek is one of 10 women to have won the tournament twice, joining the likes of Serena Williams, Steffi Graf, and Martina Navratilova, among others.

However, she faces a tough test next against the in-form Mirra Andreeva.

Ninth seed Andreeva defeated the Pole on her way to the Dubai title last month, and is currently riding a 10-match win streak.

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Coco Gauff has confessed that she ‘doesn’t care’ about being American No 1, and shared how she wishes to end her career.

The American gave an exclusive interview to Roland Garros, with just under three months until the tournament.

“I think just accepting the highs and lows,” stated Gauff, when asked what she has learnt the most over the last year.

“I think sometimes in sports you want to just stay on the high and kind of ride that wave, but especially with this sport, a season as long as tennis, it’s impossible to always be on that high wave, and there’s going to be some low moments, I think.

“Just trying to stick through those tough moments and get better through them. Not feeling like the rest of the season is going to go that way. I feel like I’m able to turn it around. It’s happened before. I think it just takes one match or two matches to kind of get that confidence back.”

The American, who has been the top-ranked player in her country for a substantial period, is already a Grand Slam Champion, having also won multiple other big titles. However, Gauff has never reached the world No 1 status.

“Honestly, it never meant anything to me,” Gauff said when asked about being the American number one.

“I just feel like all the people say it online. And for me, it really means absolutely nothing. I don’t like to look at it. I don’t care.

“The reason it means nothing is because of the goal, obviously, is to be number one, period.

“But obviously, I am lucky to be surrounded by such great competition for my country. And all of us are friendly with each other and we root for each other. And I was just happy to see, Madison win and then seeing Amanda win – two people who I think rightfully and strongly deserve those titles.”

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Despite only being 21-years-old, Gauff also shared how she wishes to end her career, stating: “I guess the most important thing is just to not be physically burnt out, just because at the end of the day, when it’s time to retire, I want to make sure it’s on my terms and not because of an injury or anything like that.

“So I think it’s just more so protecting my love for the sport and hopefully that it treats me with that love, too.”

It is that love for the sport that Gauff attempted to reiterate during Indian Wells, as she stated during a press conference: “As I get older, honestly, I feel like I love the sport more than when I was 17, 18, just because I felt more pressure then because of how I just came and started.”

Coco Gauff will next play at the Miami Open, taking place from March 18 – March 30.

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The CEO of the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has come out in defence of the organisation and doping procedures amid the ongoing fallout from Jannik Sinner and Iga Swiatek’s cases.

Both Sinner and Swiatek, Grand Slam champions who were ranked world No 1 at points during 2024, found themselves at the centre of drug testing controversy last season.

Sinner twice tested positive for banned steroid clostebol in March 2024, with the ITIA handing him no suspension in August 2024, finding the Italian to have been of “no fault”.

The severity of Sinner’s sanction was appealed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in September 2024, and the case was set to be heard by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) this April.

However, it was announced last month that Sinner and WADA had settled outside of court, with the 23-year-old now serving a three-month suspension.

Swiatek tested positive for TMZ in August 2024 and was ultimately handed a one-month suspension by the ITIA, having been found to be of “no significant fault” in her case.

Both Sinner and Swiatek argued that contamination was the cause of their doping violations and successfully appealed against their provisional suspensions, allowing them to compete while investigations were ongoing.

This was the bone of contention for many when criticising the ITIA’s handling of the cases, something which CEO Karen Moorhouse was keen to dismiss.

In quotes reported by Ubitennis, Moorhouse insisted that the “rules were respected” in both cases and that both players had the right to appeal their provisional suspensions within a 10-day period.

“It was mistakenly believed that we were announcing positive tests, when in fact we were announcing provisional suspensions,” she said. “In both the case of Sinner – and in that of Swiatek – the rules were respected.

“The players filed an appeal against the provisional suspension within the 10-day period provided for by our regulations and, since the appeal was successful, the provisional suspensions were not made public.

“Some sports, such as athletics, decide to immediately announce provisional suspensions. Others, especially team sports, never announce them.

“Tennis, for now, has given itself the ten-day rule; we’ll see, in the future this rule could also change.”

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Sinner’s case in particular has attracted huge attention, with the reigning Australian Open and US Open currently banned until May 2025.

The Italian successfully argued in his initial case with the ITIA by claiming that he had accidently been contaminated by former physiotherapist Giacomo Naldi.

Naldi reportedly used trofodermin, a spray containing clostebol, on a cut on his finger before massaging Sinner without using gloves; the world No 1 would test positive on March 10th and March 18th.

Both Naldi and fitness coach Umberto Ferrara, who reportedly purchased the spray, left Sinner’s team last August once the initial ruling had been announced.

Moorhouse further revealed that there had been no justification to prosecute either Naldi or Ferrara due to a lack of “intentionality” with the contamination.

She added: “There was no justification for prosecuting any member of his [Sinner’s] entourage, because the assumption, namely the intentionality of taking doping substances, was missing.”

Sinner is set to return to action at the Italian Open in Rome, which begins on May 7th – just three days after his suspension ends.

Meanwhile, Swiatek, who completed her suspension in December 2024, is currently in action in Indian Wells.

The world No 2 is in quarter-final action against Zheng Qinwen on Thursday.

Read Next: Jannik Sinner’s 40 weeks as No 1: Italian set to rise up all-time standings despite ban

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Morgan Riddle has snapped back at critics who suggest that she has been ‘capitalising’ on the tennis career of her partner, Taylor Fritz.

Riddle has been dating the 2024 US Open men’s singles finalist since 2020, and has featured in Netflix’s ‘Break Point’, with their close relationship evident to observe in the tennis series.

The 27-year-old is best known as an influencer on Instagram and TikTok, amassing over one million followers across the two platforms through the sharing of her fashion, beauty, and travel content.

“I think historically, a lot of the older wives and partners on the [tennis] tour have been very private, heads down, in the box,” said Riddle on ‘The Squeeze’ podcast with Tay Lautner.

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

“I don’t know if this is true, but I’ve been told by people on the tennis tour that when I was first posting TikTok [videos] a couple of years ago, there was a clique of older wives on the tour and they would send my videos in their group chat and just make fun of me.

“So, I definitely got a lot of backlash, both from within in the tennis community and the fans — I think because it was different. And I’m calling attention to myself.

“I guess 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–k that,’ and posted whatever I wanted to.

“I think people think I’m annoying sometimes. I definitely have a certain person on TikTok specifically where I kind of feed into it and say things that are controversial enough where it will piss people off but it won’t get me cancelled.”

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Despite the fame of her partner, Fritz has been highly-supportive and coached Riddle on how to handle the attention that comes with such a high-profile relationship.

She went on to state that: “Taylor has always been really good [about public criticism]. He went pro when he was 17 so he has dealt with that for so much, much longer than I had. So he was very helpful in coaching me through that.”

“People write crazy things about us and our relationship, and about me and about him” she continued. “Both of us are united in the fact of like, ok we really love each other, we have a very healthy relationship, nothing that anyone says online is going have any sort of effect on that.

“He’s also been really good about being super defensive of me and what I’m doing. That’s what interesting too is that so many people have such a problem with me capitalizing on tennis and his career and he has always encouraged me and supported me to do it. And he wants to be a dual-income household. He’s like ‘hell yeah.’”

Taylor Fritz’s most recent match was a 7-5, 6-4 defeat to the in-form Jack Draper at the Masters 1000 event in Indian Wells.

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