Tennis-Fritz falls to Basavareddy in French Open shock

After a tight opening set slipped away in a see-sawing tiebreak, the 28-year-old came out firing in the second frame, only ⁠to surrender ​an early ⁠break as Basavareddy mixed up his game with impeccable drop shots to trouble his ⁠compatriot. Fritz was soon staring at back-to-back first-round defeats at Roland Garros when world ​number 148 Basavareddy unleashed a powerful serve late in the second-set ⁠tiebreak to double his lead in the match.

Seventh seed Taylor ​Fritz was stunned 7-6(5) ​7-6(5) 6-7(9) 6-1 by ‌fellow American ​Nishesh Basavareddy in the first round of the French Open on Sunday as his injury-disrupted ‌claycourt season ended with a whimper.

Fritz returned with an opening defeat at Geneva last week after two months away due to a knee injury ‌and he showed signs of rust under the afternoon sun on ‌Court Suzanne Lenglen against 21-year-old wildcard Basavareddy. After a tight opening set slipped away in a see-sawing tiebreak, the 28-year-old came out firing in the second frame, only ⁠to surrender ​an early ⁠break as Basavareddy mixed up his game with impeccable drop shots to trouble his ⁠compatriot.

Fritz was soon staring at back-to-back first-round defeats at Roland Garros when world ​number 148 Basavareddy unleashed a powerful serve late in the second-set ⁠tiebreak to double his lead in the match. The third set went with serve for ⁠12 ​games and Fritz let out a loud scream when he won the tiebreak after saving a matchpoint but Basavareddy was not ⁠to be denied a maiden top-10 win, and he took complete control ⁠of the fourth ⁠set and finished the job.

Up next for Basavareddy is a second-round clash with either Alexander Shevchenko or ‌Alex Michelsen.