Taylor Fritz ran into a buzzsaw today in Nishesh Basavareddy, who was near perfect with his baseline tactics of two to the backhand then one to the forehand, repeat, and his drop shots were effective. Basavareddy was dropped earlier this year by ex coach Gilles Cervera and now USTA coach Dean Goldfine looks like a genius. Goldfine started with Nishesh in early April in Sarasota where he lost to Stefan Dostanic. Fritz possibly underestimated Nishesh and perhaps miscalculated him as automatic win.
Goldfine started his ATP career in the mid 80s as Aaron Krickstein’s travel buddy, according to a former player who told me today. Goldfine then worked with a top doubles team Patrick Galbraith and Grant Connell before coaching Todd Martin in the 90s. Fritz was not bothered by any knee trouble and he did not mention it after the 67 67 76 16 defeat, he was simply outplayed by a young and hungry hot prospect and excellent fighter – Nishesh once saved seventeen match points in a junior match (as he revealed in our Biofile interview at Sarasota Open). Fritz needs a change, he was asking Mike Russell, what should I do? This shows Russell did not have Fritz sufficiently ready to play Basavareddy.
Novak Djokovic had his hands full with Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard’s monster serve and heavyweight hitting but solved the puzzle in four sets. Very impressive start for the 39 year old Djokovic 67 75 61 64.
Naomi Osaka has ignited another controversy with her all black party this weekend where no white or non black players were invited. Shamefully, Osaka drew the color line. We all know what would happen if a white player hosted an all white party – instant media condemnation and maybe even a hefty fine for bigotry. But Osaka is getting away with her racism. Maybe the black players want a Negro Tour like the old baseball Negro Leagues. The bizarre fact is Osaka seems to forget she is half Japanese and only recognizes her blackness.
Michael Zheng got trounced by Dino Prizmic 16 16 36 after rampaging through qualies without losing a set. The Croatian will face hot shot Joao Fonseca in the second round. Zheng has been playing college tennis since Indian Wells and a Challenger two weeks ago so he may have lost his rhythm of playing matches consecutively. In college they play one or two matches a week.
So far the TNT broadcasting has been flat, visually very good but all the analysts are struggling to say anything interesting or original. Jimmy Arias raised the bar very high.
Djokovic created another golden moment. He drove in today with his kids and at entry was an artist showing her painting of Novak with daughter Tara. Novak saw it, rolled down the window, got out and hugged the female artist and graciously and respectfully accepted the artwork. You have to think most other top champions would have driven by and ignored the incident. But Novak is a real People’s Champion.
Frankin Tiafoe yelled YOU GO GIRL to spark Hailey Bubba Baptiste to beat Krejcikova in three sets while the former French Open champ’s coach Jiri Novak was generally stoic and outcheerleaded (new word invented). Big Foe’s twin bro Franklin Foe has been with Bubba for seven or eight years, I remember seeing them hitting at Delray Beach Open when she was still a teenager, about 17 or 18.
Emma Raducanu 14 Grand slam performances since winning the US Open win of 2021… 2022; AO R2 FO R2 WI R2 US R1 2023; AO R2 2024; AO R2 WI R4 US R1 2025; AO R3 FO R2 WI R3 US R3 2026; AO R2 FO R1 Breakdown per round; R1 3 R2 7 R3 3 R4 1. (Compiled by PavvyG)
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