By their current standards, reaching the second round of the French Open would qualify as a success for either Taylor Fritz or Nishesh Basavareddy.
One was guaranteed to accomplish that feat, as the two Americans went head-to-head on Sunday evening in Paris. Fritz went into the season’s second Grand Slam having played only one match on clay due to knee tendinitis (lost it 6-4, 6-4 to Alexei Popyrin last week in Geneva). Basavareddy is down at No. 148 in the rankings and had won only two tour-level matches prior to arriving at Roland Garros.
Given the circumstances surrounding Fritz, the margins in this matchup were always expected to be smaller than the rankings would have suggested. And sure enough, that proved to be the case. Basavareddy pulled off the upset — but arguably not a huge one — with a 7-6(5), 7-6(5), 6-7(9), 6-1 victory that required three hours and 23 minutes. The 21-year-old missed one match point in a marathon third-set tiebreaker but bounced back to dominate the fourth.
“Definitely,” Basavareddy answered when asked if this was the biggest win of his career. “What a match. Taylor’s obviously a great player, so (I’m) super happy to get through that — especially after losing the third set. (My) first French Open main draw and all the support (I had), it’s incredible.”
Novak Djokovic also advanced to the last 64 on Sunday, beating Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 in the night-session showdown on Court Philippe Chatrier. The three-time Roland Garros winner got off to a slow start but recovered to prevail in two hours and 51 minutes.
Like Fritz, Djokovic had previously contested just one clay-court match and lost it right away (to Dino Prizmic at the Rome Masters).