Wild Ride: Basavareddy Upsets Fritz in Roland Garros Shocker

By Richard Pagliaro | Sunday, May 24, 2026
Photo credit: Julien De Rosa/AFP/Getty

Dripping a drop shot that dissolved in the dirt like a dream disrupted by dawn, Nishesh Basavareddy brought creativity to court in his Roland Garros debut.

Showing soft touch, Basavareddy knocked Taylor Fritz out of Roland Garros in stunning upset. 

Carving a barrage of drop shot winners, Basavareddy toppled the seventh-seeded Fritz 7-6(5), 7-6(5), 6-7(9), 6-1 sending the American No. 2 to his second straight French Open first round defeat. First is the first Top 10 seed to fall from the singles draw.

World No. 148 Basavareddy scored a breakout victory.

The wild card posted his first Top 10 win and became the first American man to earn a Top 10 win at Roland Garros since two-handed titan Jan-Michael Gambill defeated No. 8 Nicolas Kiefer in the 2000 first round. 

A disorientating mix of soft drop shots and sharp backhand drives down the line helped Basavareddy tests Fritz’s quickness off the mark, reactions and front-court acumen following an injury-induced layoff.

A knee injury sidelined Fritz from his fourth-round Miami Open loss to Jiri Lehecka until Geneva last week where he dropped his first red-clay match of the year to Alexei Popyrin.

It is Fritz’s second straight opening-round exit in Paris coming a year after the fourth seed lost to No. 66 Daniel Altmaier here.

Though Fritz pumped 21 aces today and hit his groundstrokes with depth, he struggled to shake off the rust when it came to reading and reacting the dropper and showed signs of frustration by Basavareddy’s unpredictable shotmaking bouncing his Head racquet off the salmon-colored court at times.

“What am I supposed to do?” an exasperated Fritz asked Coach Michael Russell after another Basavareddy dropper eluded him.

Though Fritz serves bigger and hits his ground strokes heavier, Basavareddy routinely took the ball earliler and showed more front-court fluency than Fritz. Basavareddy won 31 of 37 trips to net more than doubling Fritz, who was 15 of 32 at net.

Credit Basavareddy for sustaining his bold play amid vise-grip of tiebreaker pressure.

Striking a backhand crosscourt, Basavareddy backed it up with a big serve down the middle for 5-3.

Deadlocked at 5-all, a fortuitous bounce favored Basavareddy when his return crashed into the tape then crawled over net. Basavareddy raised his hands in apology snatching set point at 6-5.

Sweeping the baseline with the sole of his sneaker before serving, Basavareddy banged the decisive wide serve to seize a two-set lead after one hour, 45 minutes of play.

A topsy-turvy third-set tiebreaker saw Fritz club a crosscourt forehand for set points at 6-4. Basavareddy banged a big serve to save the first set point and Fritz netted his fourth double fault on the second set point.

Teasing Fritz with another dropper, Basavareddy gained match point at 8-7.

Wasting no time, Fritz fired a 125 mph serve winner right off the service line to deny match point for 8-all. After Basavareddy leveled at 9-all, coach Dean Goldfine yelled to his charge “You gotta change ends!”.

Reading the dropper, Fritz spun a backhand pass for a fifth set point.

On his fifth set point, Fritz won a backhand crosscourt exchange erupting in a primal scream forcing a fourth set after two hours, 52 minutes of play.

Both men left the court and when play resumed Basavareddy went back on the attack.

The wild card charged through 12 of the first 14 points of the fourth set breaking then confirming the break at love for a 3-0 fourth-set lead.

Continuing to frustrate Fritz with sharp angles and soft touch, Basavareddy extended his lead to 5-0.

On his fourth match point, the 21-year-old American bolted a big serve down the T sealing his biggest career win, by ranking, in three hours, 22 minutes.

In a clash of SoCal natives, Newport Beach native Basavareddy denied Fritz his 350th career win advancing to a second-round meeting with either another SoCal player, Alex Michelsen, or 88th-ranked Alexander Shevchenko.