Taylor Fritz has best reaction to Karen Khachanov's friendly jab
By Lee Vowell
Karen Khachanov has played a lot of doubles in his career. While never overly successful when doing so, he does have a title to his name. Many times he will play doubles for two reasons. One is that he simply loves to play the sport. The other is that it gives him more court time to prepare for future matches in both singles and doubles.
Taylor Fritz has played far fewer doubles in his career and has never won a title. He does not have a consistent partner and he tends to only focus on his singles matches. He has won seven career titles so that makes sense. Plus, being a good doubles player and also being successful in singles is rare.
Ahead of Wimbledon, though, both players wanted to get a bit more work on grass courts. Tennis is an odd sport in that three of the four majors are played on completely different surfaces. But unlike clay and hard courts, players do not have a chance to participate in many events that take place on grass.
Taylor Fritz can't help but laugh at Karen Khachanov's comments
Ahead of the cinch Championships, Fritz and Khachanov decided to team up and see how far they could get in doubles. They likely hoped that they might win a match. At least that would mean they would get two more matches in before Wimbledon begins on Monday, July 1. Instead, they won several matches and made the final.
Unfortunately, they lost to Martin Venus and Neal Skupski 4-6 7-6(5) 10-5. While the match might have been forgettable, something Khachanov said post-match was much more noteworthy. His words also gave a clear indication that Fritz and Khachanov got along quite well while playing together. Perhaps it was Fritz's response to Khachanov's words that made the moment great.
In an on-court interview as part of the award presentation, Khachanov spoke about "how poorly" Fritz and he had played together. The joke was that they didn't expect to make the final. Khachanov did not stop there, though.
When asked about what he had to say about playing with the American, Khachanov said, "I would say absolutely nothing. I think if I'm honest with you, in front of many witnesses, it's the first and last time we (play) together." He went on to confirm he was joking and said he had a fun week of playing.
What augmented the moment was Fritz's immediate response to Khachanov implying he would never play with Fritz again. The American simply laughed and said, "Wow." A fun and excellent moment for the players and tennis fans.