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The 2026 French Open witnessed its first monumental shock on opening Sunday as wildcard entry Nishesh Basavareddy stunned world number nine Taylor Fritz in the first round. The 21-year-old American of Indian-origin produced a breathtaking performance on Court Suzanne Lenglen, defeating his heavily favoured compatriot 7-6(5), 7-6(5), 6-7(9), 6-1 to claim his maiden Grand Slam main draw victory.
Basavareddy made his Grand Slam debut at the Australian Open, where he pushed Novak Djokovic to four sets. Despite defeat, the young star impressed the crowd and Djokovic alike, who admitted he was surprised by Basavareddy`s quality.
Ranked No. 148 in the world, Basavareddy entered the clay-court major as a massive underdog against the seventh-seeded Fritz. However, the former Stanford University standout showed zero nerves on his Roland Garros debut.
Fritz, who has been battling persistent knee tendinitis and had not played competitive matches coming into Paris, showed tremendous grit in the third set. The former US Open finalist managed to save a match point and capitalised on his fifth set point during a marathon tiebreak to extend the match. Despite the setback, Basavareddy refused to let the momentum shift and ran away with the match in the fourth set with a dominant 6-1 finish to get his first-ever Grand Slam win.
Basavareddy will face Alex Michelsen in the next round
While Fritz hammered down 21 aces and hit 71 total winners, Basavareddy countered with 51 winners of his own and broke the higher seed’s serve three times to cross the finish line. Addressing the crowd after the match, Basavareddy was thrilled by the support and asked for it again for his next match.
“What a match. Taylor`s obviously a great player, so I`m super happy to get through that, especially after losing the third set,” Basavareddy stated during his emotional on-court interview.
The win marks Basavareddy`s first career top-10 victory. By beating Fritz, he became the first American man to defeat a top-10 opponent at Roland Garros since Jan-Michael Gambill defeated Nicolas Kiefer back in 2000. Following his historic victory, Basavareddy advances to the second round, where he will face fellow young American Alex Michelsen.
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