Basavareddy stuns No.7 Fritz

Nishesh Basavareddy arrived in Paris as a wild card ranked No. 148. He left Court Suzanne-Lenglen on Sunday with the biggest win of his career. The 21-year-old American beat seventh-seeded Taylor Fritz 7-6(5), 7-6(5), 6-7(9), 6-1 in the first round of Roland-Garros, according to the tournament and the ATP Tour. The victory gave Basavareddy his first career win over a top-10 opponent and sent the highest-seeded American man in the draw out on the opening day. The upset also came in Basavareddy’s first main-draw match at the French Open. Roland-Garros said he earned the wild card by winning the USTA’s Roland-Garros Wild Card Challenge, while the ATP Tour said the result put him into the second round of a second straight Grand Slam tournament. ### How did Basavareddy pull it off against Fritz? (rolandgarros.com) The scoreline tells part of it: Basavareddy took the first two sets in tiebreaks, lost a tight third-set breaker after Fritz saved match point, then dominated the fourth set 6-1. Roland-Garros reported the match lasted three hours and 23 minutes, while the ATP Tour listed it at two hours and 45 minutes; both accounts agreed on the four-set result and the sequence of the sets. (rolandgarros.com) Drop shots were central to the plan. “That was definitely a part of the game plan today,” Basavareddy said, according to Roland-Garros. “He was so far back, especially on return. I wanted to move him up and back and make the match a little bit more linear, instead of side to side.” The ATP Tour said Basavareddy withstood 71 winners from Fritz and hit 51 of his own, while saving three of the four break points he faced. (rolandgarros.com) It said Basavareddy was 0-3 against top-10 opponents before Sunday. ### Why was this result such a big jump for Basavareddy? Basavareddy’s ranking made the gap clear. The ATP Tour lists him at No. 148 and says his career-high ranking is No. 99, reached in June 2025. (rolandgarros.com) The ATP profile also lists him as 21 years old and from the United States. Roland-Garros called it his first top-10 win and said he became the first American man to record a top-10 victory at Roland-Garros since 2000. (atptour.com) After the match, Basavareddy called it “definitely” the biggest win of his career. “Taylor’s obviously a great player, so super happy to get through that,” he said. The ATP Tour added that Basavareddy had played only five tour-level matches this season before facing Fritz. (atptour.com) That made the result one of the clearest surprises of the tournament’s opening day. ### What was going on with Fritz coming into Paris? Fritz entered the tournament short on recent match play. Roland-Garros said the Southern California native had lost in the first round at Geneva in his only clay-court match before Paris. (rolandgarros.com) The ATP Tour said he had competed in just one tournament since Miami because of a knee injury. Jim Courier, the two-time Roland-Garros champion who commentated the match for TNT, said the loss should not have been “a huge surprise” to close followers of the sport because Fritz was “so underprepared competitively,” according to Roland-Garros. (atptour.com) Courier said Fritz had “only played one match in the last two months.” The ATP Tour said Fritz, listed there as World No. 9, has now lost in the first round at Roland-Garros in two consecutive years. (rolandgarros.com) ### What happens next for Basavareddy in Paris? Basavareddy’s next opponent was not yet set in the immediate aftermath of the upset. The ATP Tour said he would face either fellow American Alex Michelsen or Aleksandr Shevchenko in the second round. (rolandgarros.com) Roland-Garros schedules second-round singles play for May 27 and May 28 in Paris. (atptour.com)