Morgan Riddle has a busy week ahead of her. As she gets ready to attend her third U.S. Open, the influencer has already hosted a Fenty Beauty event in Chelsea, participated in a panel on tennis and fashion with Sporty & Rich founder Emily Oberg and launched a campaign with Heineken for a zero-proof beer. The main event, however, is cheering on her partner, the tennis player Taylor Fritz who is currently ranked No. 12 in the world in men’s singles.
Fritz will have to earn his way to the end of the Open — he won his opening match against Argentina’s Camilo Ugo Carabelli on Monday. Last year, he made it to the men’s singles quarter-finals before getting knocked out by eventual champion Novak Djokovic. But Riddle, between hosting activations and suites with the likes of Grey Goose and Bumble & Bumble, already knows she’ll be busy up to the end of play.
“Regardless of how he does, I’m sticking around,” she told Glossy.
The WAG phenomenon — that is, the wives and girlfriends of elite athletes — is nothing new, having originated in the early 2000s with the stardom of the likes of Spice Girl Victoria Beckham. But Riddle is part of a new class of WAGs that are making careers as social media influencers, translating their unique access to the sports world to TikTok and Instagram followings and brand deals. And with beauty and fashion brands taking a growing interest in reaching diverse sports fans, WAGs’ particular blend of insight and fandom is especially valuable.
“An athlete may be really aspirational. Their followers may think, ‘I’ll never be at that level of fitness,’ or their lifestyle may seem really outlandish to an everyday person. Someone like a WAG is way more relatable,” said Diana Perlov, senior director of client success at influencer marketing agency Open Influence. “They’re just people like you and me, but they are still part of these core lifestyles and get to attend these events that we watch on TV.”
Riddle and Fritz began dating in 2020 after meeting on Raya, with Riddle maintaining her full-time job while traveling with Fritz to tournaments early on in their relationship. Only in 2022 did she post a “get ready with me” video at the Australian Open, garnering 1.2 million views on TikTok and opening her up to the possibility of making a career as an influencer. Today, Riddle has 530,000 followers on TikTok, where her audience is 96% female, close to 350,000 on Instagram, and nearly 80,000 on YouTube. She calls the latter her favorite platform despite her smaller audience, finding the longform format lets her audience see her as a whole person rather than just a photo.
“You can’t hold a normal job if you’re going to travel pretty much full-time with your partner,” she said of the transition. “I think that’s why there are a lot of other partners now on tour who are doing similar things — because [being an influencer] is a flexible job that you can have. You’re already naturally getting that sort of attention, so why not capitalize on it?”
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