Pro Tennis Commentators Face Backlash For Remarks Against Taylor Fritz's Girlfriend, Morgan Riddle
"You just pissed off women and made me not want to watch tennis anymore on NBC Sports."
When Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce showed their love to the world, millions of people (including myself) squealed in delight at the sight of Swift at a Kansas City Chiefs NFL game. Soon enough, fathers and daughters, including people who had never watched an NFL game in their life, were tuning into football every Sunday, rooting for the Chiefs and learning the game of football.
While some balked at the notion that (god forbid!) women were watching sports, Swift’s face on Sunday Night Football led to record-breaking numbers. This is a good thing! Everyone should be able to watch whatever they want!
So, when one TikToker noticed how uncool two professional tennis commentators were being regarding a pro’s girlfriend, she felt that professional sports were taking a step back in being inclusive and progressive.
During Taylor Fritz’s match at Wimbledon, his long-time girlfriend and social media influencer, Morgan Riddle, was shown in the stands, sitting with Fritz’s family.
NBC Sports commentators, Chris Fowler and Jon McEnroe, took the camera shot as an opportunity to poke fun at Riddle for... existing!
“We want to grow sports. We want to be more inclusive. We want more women into sports. This is a class on how not to do that,” Katherine Ellis begins before sharing a clip from Wimbledon. “This is NBC Sports. This is Chris Fowler and John McEnroe's way of not doing that.”
“There’s Morgan,” Fowler says.
“I'm not on social media, but apparently, she’s a big influencer. Do you follow her, Chris?” McEnroe says with a bit of sarcasm.
“In terms of doing research for my job, following players for information regarding their matches...” Fowler says before being interrupted by McEnroe.
“So, that’s a yes?” McEnroe asks, poking fun at his colleague. “It’s a yes or no question!”
“The answer is: ‘Yes, but I can’t say I recall one post,’” Fowler replies sheepishly.
“You’re gonna hurt her feelings,” McEnroe says with obvious snark.
After the clip ends, Ellis goes off on the two men.
“‘Apparently she's a big social media influencer’ who literally did a brand new show on Wimbledon’s social media pages, and you guys didn't see it?” she says.
“Not the other one basically saying he's embarrassed to follow her and only does because of research and can't recall any of her posts. Highly doubt that ... I can tell you right now, Taylor [Fritz] doesn't like playing in the wind. That's an inside scoop if you'd follow Morgan. I don't know anything about tennis, but I know that from following her.”
“What? And you're going to hurt her feelings? No, you just pissed off women and made me not want to watch tennis anymore on NBC Sports,” she goes on.
Ellis then points out the stark difference between NBC Sports’ commentary on a pro athlete’s family and significant other versus another crew talking about MLB Star Paul Skenes and gymnast and social media star, Livvy Dunne.
In the clip showing Dunne in the stands at the MLB All-Star Game, the commentator calls Skenes and Dunne a “pop culture power couple” before noting that Dunne is an accomplished gymnast herself as well as a social media star.
“I guarantee you for both of those sporting events, hundreds if not thousands of girls were tuning in because of those girlfriends to watch those sporting events. So you can either grow the game or you can sh*t on them because you're jealous that they're probably making more money than you. Up to you guys!” Ellis concludes.
Several TikTok users noticed that Jon McEnroe is just not that great of a guy with a history of being disrespectful.
“I started watching tennis after the Tokyo Olympics. if McEnroe is commentating I've learned to mute the TV or just wait until they play a WTA match,” one user wrote.
“They can’t help but be misogynistic,” another said.
“That’s the thing, he could’ve just stopped at ‘and that’s Morgan, she is a social media influencer’ like they had nothing else to talk about as if a tennis match was not happening? Like😵💫”
The OP replied, “‘Apparently’ she’s a social media influencer but you literally follow her… you didn’t see her in Forbes? Or The NY Times? Or literally on Wimbledon’s social media pages?”
Others thought that Ellis was overreacting about the comments.
“Was expecting something bad when I saw the caption. Two older guys didn’t praise her for her social media presence while calling a Wimbledon match? God forbid they didn’t see what she ate today,” one user wrote.
“Wimbledon literally hired her to broadcast host a show on their platforms the last two years,” the OP replied.
And she’s right! Riddle has a strong presence on the Wimbledon YouTube channel and Instagram.
