Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul may consider themselves “brothers,” but the last pair of siblings to win a doubles medal at the Olympic Games were two Americans: Mike and Bob Bryan, back in London 2012.
Regardless, Fritz and Paul defeated Adam Pavlasek and Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic in straight sets (6:3, 6:4) to secure a place on the podium alongside fellow countrymen Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek, who took home silver in Paris.
But unlike Ram and Krajicek, Paul and Fritz usually play singles, which is why their third place before the start of summer is almost unlikely.
Now, with just weeks to go until the start of the US Open, Fritz and Paul, ranked 12th and 13th on the ATP Tour, are the USA’s biggest glimmer of hope since Andy Roddick in 2003 that an American can win the men’s version of the Grand Slam tournament.
Many would have thought that this label would be attributed to Ben Shelton after he reached the semifinals of the US Open last year, when he was stopped by eventual winner Novak Djokovic.
Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul won bronze at the Olympics, although they usually played singles
The duo, who have a close bond, are the two highest-ranked Americans in the ATP rankings.
But after coming into the spotlight in 2023 with his quarterfinal appearance at the Australian Open and his performances on home soil, Shelton has only made one fourth-round appearance this year.
He is also two places behind Fritz and one behind Paul in 14th place. All three Americans are neck and neck in the rankings, along with Sebastian Korda, the younger brother of world number one women’s golfer Nelly Korda, who rose three places to 15th place.
If Paul wins, his girlfriend and model Paige Lorenze is likely to appear on the court at Arthur Ashe and pose with the trophy alongside her boyfriend, whom she has been dating since 2022.
Earlier this summer, Lorenze rose to prominence on social media after breaking with tradition by accompanying Paul onto the pitch and posing with his trophy following his win at Queen’s.
The 26-year-old former competitive skier has 639,000 followers on Instagram and 300,000 on TikTok.
“My fashion week is the Grand Slams,” she once said. Lorenze has previously worked with Prada and FarFetch.
Paul’s girlfriend Paige Lorenze loves to dress up to support her boyfriend in his games
Lorenze broke with tradition by sharing the pitch with Paul in July and posing with his trophy at Queen’s
The model attended the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Island Party in Hollywood, Florida in May
Before Paul, she had a number of high-profile partners, including controversial country singer Morgan Wallen and actor Armie Hammer.
Fritz’s partner Morgan Riddle was once called “the most famous woman in men’s tennis” by the New York Times. She met Fritz through the exclusive dating app Raya.
Riddle also appeared in the first season of the Netflix series “Break Point” and, like Lorenze, has become a well-known fashion influencer as she wears prestigious brands such as Hermes, Prada, Gucci, Miu Miu, Max Mara and Ralph Lauren to her boyfriend’s tennis matches.
At Wimbledon, she launched a video series on match-day fashion, one of which was viewed 7.1 million times. She titled the video: “When you start dating a professional tennis player and literally do nothing but travel the world, dress up, drink champagne and go to Wimbledon.”
Meanwhile, Fritz’s partner Morgan Riddle once claimed that she loved “travelling the world, dressing up, drinking champagne and going to Wimbledon.”
“If his ranking had dropped, they would say it was my fault,” Riddle once said of the criticism from tennis fans
Riddle also makes GRWM (Get Ready with Me) videos in which she poses in designer outfits and tries to “make tennis cool” in the eyes of her 297,000 followers on Instagram and 488,700 on TikTok.
“If his ranking had dropped, they would say it was my fault. I only get really nervous when I see him get nervous,” she once said.
She made headlines during Wimbledon after uploading – and then deleting – Instagram posts that appeared to reference Alexander Zverev’s abuse allegations.
These included Video showing her enjoying a drink with the caption, “When your man wins the girls.”
She had previously posted a picture of the pitch in her story during the game and wrote: “Cheer loudly, girls.”
During Wimbledon, Riddle deleted Instagram posts that appeared to target Alexander Zverev
Riddle posted a story with the text “Cheer loud, girls” during Fritz vs. Zverev on Centre Court
Fans quickly tried to connect the dots and suggest that Riddle was indirectly referring to Fritz’s opponent Zverev, who was accused in court documents last year of physically abusing a woman in 2020.
Earlier this year, he agreed to settle the case, agreeing to pay $238,351 to Brenda Patea, the mother of his child, but was found not guilty (Patea had publicly identified herself as a victim in the case).
Less than 24 hours later, Riddle has now explained to her 320,000 Instagram followers why she deleted her posts so hastily.
“As for my stories from yesterday … I deleted them as soon as I realized the misunderstanding and how much the media had blown them out of proportion,” she said.
“It was not about incidents off the court and there is no animosity between anyone.”
