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Taylor Fritz hit back at fans who misread the American's comment on a post featuring him and Joao Fonseca after their clash at the Lexus Eastbourne Open. After darkness suspended their play on Wednesday, the delayed match on June 26, favored the defending champion as he ousted the Brazilian 6-3, 6-7(5), 7-5 to advance to the quarterfinals of the tournament.
Following this, a series of clips posted by Tennis TV on Thursday caught Fritz's attention as he left a comment (now deleted), jokingly taking a jab at Fonseca. He hinted that the highlights featured most of the 18-year-old's points, due to his rising popularity in the tennis world. He followed it up with an 'update' of his predictions being correct, after going through the clips.
"Commenting this before watching points... betting that this is 80% fonseca highlights, maybe 1/2 points of me winning," he posted in the comments.
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Fans critiqued Fritz over the ill-favored comments, misunderstanding the American's intent. Showing their outrage on X (formerly Twitter), one fan wrote:
"In two years, you won't even see the color of Fonseca's ball. Enjoy it while you can @Taylor_Fritz97"
Fritz clarified his intention, labelling fans 'incapable' of understanding his wit.
"People are incapable of humor," he replied.
He issued another statement, asking his fans to 'chill' instead of making a fuss about it.
"It’s crazy how people have 0 sense of humor and take everything so seriously, it was meant to be funny like pls chill," he posted.
As the fan sided with him, he later added that he just wished to 'make people laugh', and wrote:
"It's not you, it’s the replies it’s crazzyy, I’m just trying to make people laugh"
Amid the commotion, Taylor Fritz laced up to take on compatriot Marcos Giron in the quarterfinals at Eastbourne and defeated him 7-5, 4-6, 7-5 to advance to the semifinals.
Taylor Fritz qualifies for his fourth Easbourne semifinals
Taylor Fritz shattered Marcos Giron's dream to qualify for his fourth semifinal at Eastbourne. Days before stepping onto the SW19, the California native took his revenge on compatriot Giron as their last meeting at the Rome Masters this year ended in the latter's favor.
He will meet Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, who displayed formidable form against Jakub Mensik in his last match, in the semifinals on Friday. Fritz is looking to get back on winning ways with hopes of cementing his Eastbourne domination with a fourth title at the ATP 250 tournament.
