World No.9 Taylor Fritz made less money than his girlfriend at this year’s Australian Open – despite reaching the fourth round at Melbourne Park. The American lost to Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti in straight sets on Monday.

The 28-year-old banked £240,000 by reaching the last 16 at the first Grand Slam of the year. However, his girlfriend, Morgan Riddle, also 28, added over 7,000 followers to her Instagram account during the tournament and raked in €290,000 (£251,000), according to Bild.

Riddle’s earnings were marginally more than Fritz’s €277,000 (£240,000) all in. The American model has benefited from major sponsorship deals and has some huge partners in the fashion and cosmetics world.

Riddle has also worked at sporting events, including Wimbledon and Formula One. Speaking to Fritz before the tournament, she said: “You have to get through the round of 16 first, otherwise I’ll earn more than you.”

Explaining in more detail, she added: “It’s almost a competition between us at Grand Slams and other tournaments to see who earns more money during the tournament. He’s always encouraged and supported me. That’s how we became a dual-income household.”

Fritz was in a philosophical mood after falling to a lacklustre Grand Slam exit against Musetti on Monday. Speaking in his post-match press conference, the former US Open finalist praised Musetti’s commanding performance but also opened up further about how injuries have affected him.

He said: “I’ve been pretty, I guess, transparent about the knee stuff the entire week. I was so happy with how I was feeling throughout the first two rounds, and then I came in after the match with Stan [Wawrinka] and it wasn’t feeling great, especially towards the end of the match.

“Today I was feeling it from the get-go. I felt good in my warmup this morning.

“Then when I went to do my pre-match stuff, like moving around and stuff before the match, I just I told my physio. I was like, ‘My knee just doesn’t feel great.’ I was hoping it would loosen up. I don’t really think it got worse, but it kind of just stayed the same the entire match. It was just pretty much everything was bothering it.”

Fritz’s next scheduled tournament is the ATP 500 in Dallas, followed by the Sunshine Double at Indian Wells and Miami. He added: “I think I can recover from it fairly, fairly quickly if I just take some time off.

“I don’t know. I don’t know how good it really is, but I’m going to see how that reacts. I’m hoping I can play Dallas. I’m not going to have to play more than three sets in any match in Dallas, so kind of just figure it out. If my knee feels like it’s not getting better, if my oblique feels like it’s not getting better, I’ll give myself the time.”