Taylor Frtiz tells Wimbledon opponent to 'have a nice flight home'

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LONDON — Taylor Fritz told his Wimbledon opponent, Arthur Rinderknech, to “have a nice flight home” after beating him in a second-round match on Thursday.

The pair got into a bit of a back-and-forth at the net after the 13th-seeded American’s 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 victory over France’s Rinderknech at the All England Club. This was a rematch of a 2023 French Open contest that Fritz won in front of a rowdy partisan crowd, which he shushed afterward.

Rinderknech made a reference to that earlier matchup during the leadup to Thursday’s meeting, and Fritz heard about it. And was not pleased.

“It’s just gives me extra fire, obviously. I’m a very chill person. I don’t do anything that could rub people the wrong way, so when someone kind of just goes out of their way to take a shot at me, then I’m not just going to take it,” said Fritz, who is from California. “It gave me the extra fire to win.”

So when it was time for the postmatch handshake Thursday, there were some words exchanged.

“I just said, ‘Have a nice flight home,’” Fritz recounted.

According to Fritz, Rinderknech responded by pointing out that he’s still around in doubles.

“I said, ‘Oh, congrats. Good for you.’ Then he started acting like, ‘Why are you blah, blah, blah?’ I’m like, ‘Dude, you know what you said. You know what you said.’ Don’t disrespect me before the match and then expect me to be all nice after the match,” said Fritz, who will take on 24th-seeded Alejandro Tabilo of Chile on Saturday for a spot in the fourth round. “That’s not how it works.”

At Roland Garros last year, spectators booed and whistled at Fritz after he eliminated Rinderknech, who was the last French man in the field. Fritz put a finger to his lips, then spread his arms to egg on the crowd and yelled, “Come on! I want to hear it!”

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Novak Djokovic working on his movement

Novak Djokovic plays a forehand return against Jacob Fearnley during their second-round match.

The good news, Novak Djokovic said, was that his surgically repaired right knee was pain-free at Wimbledon.

The bad news, he knows, is that his movement, such a big part of his success, was not yet back to normal during a 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 7-5 victory in the second round over Jacob Fearnley, a 22-year-old from Scotland who played college tennis in the United States — and that’ll need to improve if Djokovic is going to contend for the title, the only reason he is back competing so soon after tearing his meniscus.

“The more matches I have, the better the chance I’ll have to feel more comfortable moving around and gain that speed, agility, change of direction — that freedom that I’m looking for, really. I had it in certain moments today, certain moments in the first match, but then it’s still not there,” said Djokovic, who has won seven of his 24 Grand Slam trophies at the All England Club. “In a way, it’s expected and normal when you come back from surgery. The body’s trying to understand what’s going on.”

When Fearnley, a wild-card entry ranked just 277th and participating in his first major tournament, grabbed the third set, a roar arose at Centre Court.

“I noticed they were probably more towards me in the crowd,” Fearnley said. “That was pretty obvious.”

Similar sounds came when he went ahead 5-4 in the fourth, particularly from a cheering section that included four teammates from his days at Texas Christian in Fort Worth, Texas.

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Jessica Pegula falls in second round

Jessica Pegula hits a return during her second-round loss to Xinyu Wang at Wimbledon.

No. 5 Jessica Pegula became the highest-seeded woman to lose so far, dismissed by Wang Xinyu 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-1, and No. 7 Hubert Hurkacz exited the men’s bracket when he needed to stop playing after injuring his right knee while diving to hit a shot late in the fourth set against Arthur Fils. Play was delayed for several minutes while a trainer examined then taped up Hurkacz’s knee; when action resumed, Hurkacz immediately tried to dive for another volley, then couldn’t continue.

Seeded winners included No. 1 Iga Swiatek — whose current unbeaten streak reached 21 — No. 4 Elena Rybakina, No. 10 Ons Jabeur, No. 11 Danielle Collins, No. 13 Jelena Ostapenko, No. 9 Alex de Minaur, No. 10 Grigor Dimitrov and No. 14 Ben Shelton, who won his second consecutive five-setter.

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Andy Murray receives ovation

A standing ovation greeted Andy Murray and his doubles partner, older brother Jamie, when they walked out onto the Centre Court grass for the first stop on the two-time Wimbledon singles champion’s farewell to the tournament that has meant so much to him.

The Murrays lost 7-6 (6), 6-4 in the first round of men’s doubles to Rinky Hijikata and John Peers.

Murray, a 37-year-old from Scotland, has said he will head into retirement after playing at the All England Club, where he is also entered in mixed doubles with 2021 U.S. Open winner Emma Raducanu, and the Paris Olympics, which begin later this month.