"Horribly put together & out of context"- Jessica Pegula vouches for Taylor Fritz after American laments misrepresentation of his comments on Olympics
American tennis star Jessica Pegula has come out in support of compatriot Taylor Fritz after he complained that he was quoted out of context about his comments on ranking points for Olympics.
Fritz was quoted as saying during his interaction on the sidelines of the ongoing United Cup that the Olympics should bring back ranking points as an additional incentive for participating in the Games.
After his quotes went viral on social media, Fritz clarified that what he actually said was that it is fine if there are no points but that no other tennis events should be held simultaneously with the Olympics. He also lamented that some essential parts of his comments were cut out.
"Also the part that’s cut out is the fact I said it’s fine if there’s no points, competing for your country is all the incentive you need but then there should not be other events 250’s/500’s coinciding… there’s not one sport where there are top level events going on during the Olympics. Tennis media = grab most controversial quotes + post + ignore explanations," he clarified on X (formerly Twitter).
Fritz noted that answers from different questions were combined as one with no context about the queries, even making it look like he could not speak English properly.
"Answers from 3 different questions all put together as one with no context of the questions it literally hurts me to try and read this…. Makes it look like I can’t speak English," Fritz commented.
Jessica Pegula, who was in the same press conference as Fritz, took to social media to defend him, stating that the quotes were indeed "horribly put together."
"I can vouch for you, I was there. This is horribly put together and really out of context. Lol," Pegula wrote.
Olympics affecting the tennis schedule a lot, Taylor Fritz says
At the same time, Taylor Fritz opined that the Olympic games were affecting the tennis schedule a lot, as it makes it important for players to get enough Davis Cup ties under their belt to qualify for the competition instead of getting time off.
"Yeah, for me, it's honestly affecting a lot, because it's affecting more weeks than just the Olympics for me. Because basically I do want to play, but I'm forced to go play now a Davis Cup tie after Australia in, I believe it's in Lithuania, when I played so much last year I really would love that week off," Fritz said in his media interaction.
The American also pointed out difficulties with going from one surface to another in the process, saying:
"But I have to play to be allowed to play Olympics, which I think is kind of, I don't know about that rule. Yeah, it's unfortunate that it's going to cost me an extra travel week, and it's also a bit inconvenient, you know, going on clay, then going back to such an important part of the season for American players, especially."