Almost two decades have passed since Victoria Beckham took her seat at the Max-Morlock-Stadion in Nuremberg during the 2006 World Cup, wearing a tiny pair of white shorts and a red tank top that loudly proclaimed, “England rocks”. On that day, arguably, they did (England beat Trinidad and Tobago two-nil), but when the team crashed out of the tournament in the quarter-finals two weeks later, some fans laid the blame at the door of the glamorous other halves who had hauled their full-to-bursting Birkins all the way to Baden-Baden.
The inevitable tabloid inquest marked the beginning of the end of the WAG era – a wild period in British culture that had reached fever pitch that summer – and the years since have been comparatively quiet on the wilfully ostentatious spectator style front. This gradual retreat from a lifestyle – and a wardrobe – designed to secure headlines and Hello! spreads no doubt came as a relief to pundits… perhaps even to players. But for anyone who found Coleen and co’s games of luxury logo oneupmanship more fun to watch than much of what happened on the pitch, the world of sport was undeniably worse off without the WAG.
Enter Morgan Riddle, the 26-year-old girlfriend of US tennis star Taylor Fritz, who has been causing something of a stir over at SW19 this summer with her sassy social media presence and carefully curated Wimbledon wardrobe of Barbie references, Princess of Wales-inspired pleats and, yes, arch slogans. “It says ‘kiss my ace’,” she says proudly, turning her back to the camera to reveal the phrase emblazoned across her sweatshirt as we chat over Zoom. She enjoys on-theme dressing, I suggest, pointing out the enormous strawberry logo on the front of her top – a further nod to English tennis traditions. “Oh, for sure. I go all in.”
Riddle, who featured alongside Fritz in the Netflix docu-series Break Point and has been dubbed the “most famous woman in men’s tennis” by the New York Times, is in town to support her boyfriend of four years, but she has commitments besides cheering from the box – not least catering to her own ever-expanding online audience. Some half a million fans now follow Morgan’s every move on TikTok, where she breaks down her designer looks and breezes through her beauty routine, all while sharing glimpses of life on the tour. Her attention-grabbing outfits and confidence on camera saw her snapped up by the tournament to present Wimbledon Threads, roving the grounds of the All England Club to interview fashionable guests.
Something of a Wimbledon veteran at this point, Riddle – who has worn archive Chanel, a Miu Miu mini and a pink skirt suit inspired by a 1964 Barbie doll this year – is used to seeing guests wearing “the full preppy, classy outfits” in the Royal Box, she says. But this summer she’s been spotting statement looks everywhere in the stands. “I’ve actually been pleasantly surprised by how many more people seem to be dressing up… even in the rain!”
The miserable weather is the Minnesota native’s “one gripe” with London, where she can easily find her favourite vanilla oat milk lattes, or fit in a morning Pilates class before she heads to the grounds. “I’ve realised I can’t really treat it like a vacation anymore,” she says of life on the road with Taylor. “I’m very much a get-up-early-and-have-a-structured-routine person. I’ve had to navigate how to do that with the lifestyle we have now… I’m figuring it out.”
Indeed, she seems to be bringing an increasingly professional approach to her public appearances as her profile grows – Morgan worked with a stylist, Emily Essen, to pull together her looks for Wimbledon. “With other tournaments I’m more last minute, but I just really had to have my shit together this week,” she says, noting that she is drawn to all things “elegant, classy and super feminine” when it comes to fashion.
That red and white (make that strawberries and cream) Chanel dress from 2008, discovered in a vintage boutique in Monaco, certainly ticks all of those boxes, although her requisite #GRWM video finds Morgan posing, manicured hand on hip, with the front zip fastening undone to reveal a flash of tanned décolletage. But, “it’s Wimbledon, so…” she sighs, swiftly whipping the zip shut right up to the neck.
It’s this sort of sly wink (in another clip she describes choosing outfits by asking herself, “What will piss male fans off the most today?”), that suggests Riddle may possess the precise qualities that made her most famous predecessors such an endless source of media fascination. The immaculately groomed appearance, yes, but also personal hustle, an appetite for publicity and, crucially, a sense of humour.
Perhaps even – dare we say it – a hint of drama? When Riddle urged her Instagram followers to “cheer loud ladies” during Fritz’s match against Alexander Zverev, who is accused of and denies allegations of domestic abuse, the tabloid speculation was swift, and fuelled further by a tense exchange between the two players at the net following Fritz’s win. Riddle later deleted her posts and said they’d been misunderstood, adding that there was “no bad blood between anyone”. (I was politely asked not to bring it up ahead of our conversation.)
Of course, tabloid scrutiny comes with the territory when you’re dating a professional athlete, and Morgan appears to be taking it all in her stride – while keeping the attention where she likes it: on her outfits. She chose a vintage Chloé dress – previously worn by Gisele Bündchen on the spring/summer 2000 runway – for the quarter-final on Wednesday afternoon, where Fritz was knocked out by Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti, drawing a line under both his Wimbledon run and Morgan’s much-discussed WAG wardrobe. She has no issue with being called a WAG, by the way. “I’ve always been very embracing of the word,” she says, lightly. “It’s just an acronym.”
Riddle knows she’ll be referred to as a WAG whether she chooses to let it bother her or not – just as she knows certain corners of the internet will be riled by a beautiful young woman using a platform in the tennis world to talk about something besides drop shots and double faults. (“Can’t please everyone!” she shrugs in another of her getting ready videos.) She’s too busy enjoying herself to care. “It’s super fun,” she concludes. “I feel like I’m just playing dress-up all the time. What more could 10-year-old Morgan have wanted?”
