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Nishesh Basavareddy had a French Open debut to remember Sunday as the 148th-ranked American stunned ninth-ranked and seventh-seeded countryman Taylor Fritz in a first-round stunner.<\/p>\n
The pair battled to three consecutive sets that went to tiebreak. When it got to the fourth with Basavareddy holding a 2-1 lead, Basavareddy dominated to secure a 7-6 (7), 7-6 (7), 6-7 (11), 6-1 upset.<\/p>\n
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Basavareddy, 21 and a former Stanford player, advances to the second round with a stunning upset in his first match in the French Open main draw.<\/p>\n
Fritz becomes the first top-10 seed to fall at Roland Garros. And he loses in the first round for the second consecutive year after falling to Germany\u2019s Daniel Altmaier as the No. 4 seed in 2025.<\/p>\n
Fritz had played in just one match in the previous two months, a straight-sets defeat<\/a> to Australia\u2019s Alexei Popyrin on Wednesday. He\u2019d been sidelined with knee tendinitis, and the Round of 16 loss at the Geneva Open was his only clay-court warmup before playing at Roland Garros on Sunday.<\/p>\n The rust showed against Basavareddy, who earned his spot in the field as a wild-card for winning the USTA Roland-Garros<\/a> Wild Card Challenge earlier in May.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Basavareddy was the better player in the clutch early as he won tiebreaks in each of the first two sets. The pair played to 6-6 again in the third set, and Basavareddy took a 3-0 lead in the tiebreak to move to the verge of a sweep.<\/p>\n Fritz battled back to tie the tiebreak at 3-3, then survived match point to win, 11-9, and force a fourth set.<\/p>\n