Meet the TWAGs changing the look of tennis

Picking up a tennis racquet was once the only prerequisite for being a star in the sport. Now being picked up by a tennis player – or matching with them on a dating app – is the ultimate power move.

While players swing racquets, TWAGs, the tennis wives and girlfriends of grand slam regulars, are getting on with the business of growing the sport’s audience and building their personal brands.

TWAGS at an event for beauty brand Bondi Sands at the QT, Melbourne. Paige Lorenze, partner of Tommy Paul; Ayan Broomfield, partner of Frances Tiafoe; Morgan Riddle, Taylor Fritz’s partner; Costeen Hatzi, partner of Nick Kyrgios; Thanasi Kokkinakis’ partner Hannah Dal Sasso.

“I cover the younger generation, the teenage girl fans of tennis because I think tennis, media and the sport in general underestimate how many of them there are,” says Morgan Riddle.

Described in a profile by The New York Times last year as “The most famous woman in men’s tennis,” Riddle, 26, has been dating US player Taylor Fritz, 26, for three years after matching with the world No. 12 on the exclusive dating site Raya.

Not content with drawing attention with her model good looks and self-confessed overdressed approach to her match outfits, Riddle has a growing social media following with nearly 700,000 TikTok followers, dominated by young women, that has drawn the attention of fashion brands and tennis administrators.

Morgan Riddle (centre) watching partner Taylor Fritz take on Fabian Marozsa at the Australian Open on Friday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

“It’s taken some time to be recognised for bringing these audiences into tennis,” Riddle says. “But about six months ago, I worked with Wimbledon, which is of course the most prestigious tennis tournament in the world.” Riddle hosted a lifestyle and fashion series Wimbledon Threads, broadcast on the event’s official channels.

“To get that that recognition from them was really big for me.”

With her appearance in the Netflix series Break Point, Riddle is the unofficial queen TWAG, with Nick Kyrgios’ girlfriend Costeen Hatzi, US player Tommy Paul’s partner Paige Lorenze and Daria Sergeyevna’s girlfriend Natalia Zabiiako part of a growing online royal court.

Riddle’s influencer journey took off following a TikTok video where she asked followers to join her picking an outfit for the Australian Open in 2022. It has now been viewed 1.5 million times, although it still trails the 7.1 million views of her video captioned: “When you start dating a professional tennis player and literally all you do is travel the world, dress cute, drink champagne and go to Wimbledon.”

“I realised that there was a gap in this content market,” Riddle says. “There are a lot of content creators focusing on the sport of tennis, the scores, the players and the guy with the great backhand. But 50 per cent of tennis fans are women. They love that part of it, but they love everything else around it too. They want to see the outfits, the travel, the lifestyle.”

Travelling for 40 weeks of the year, Riddle enjoys the more relaxed atmosphere of the Australian Open but has noticed people making an extra effort to wear looks that score likes on social media.

“When I started travelling on tour there really weren’t any other WAGS that would dress up,” she says. “People were quite practical for the matches.”

“Now that’s starting to shift a little bit. The outfits people are wearing this year are way more dressy than I’ve seen before.”

“I did a poll on my Instagram last week asking if people were dressing up for Australian Open this year? It was like 75 per cent of people saying ‘Yes, I’m going to serve’. Also, that’s my audience: the girlies.”

Riddle has been stocking up at the Australian stores of Rebecca Vallance, Kookai and Henne, but the love goes both ways.

“Names like Morgan and Ayan are shaping trends but influence consumer behaviour, so we really love collaborating with them,” says Nadia Bartel, Melbourne influencer and founder of the label Henne.

“Their reach extends to tennis enthusiasts and a broader audience.”

Having brought fashion and its fans to tennis, Riddle is now looking further than centre court for opportunities.

“I’m thinking of branching off into other sports that have the same issues that tennis does where they’re not catering as much to their female audience as they should be. F1 is, what comes to mind,” she says.

“I think over those last two years I’ve transitioned from being Taylor Fritz’s girlfriend to being Morgan Riddle.”

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