Fritz falls to Basavareddy in French Open shock

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.