Taylor Fritz gets "cooked" by Nishesh Basavareddy’s drop shots in Roland Garros first-round exit

For the second consecutive year, Taylor Fritz finds himself eyeing the grass-court season earlier than he hoped.

Nishesh Basavareddy—the winner of the USTA’s Roland Garros Wild Card Challenge—knocked out the No. 7 seed 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-7 (9), 6-1, to secure his first Top 10 win.

“I think I raised my level most of the time in the bigger moments, especially my serve. So I would say that's kind of what I was most happy about,” Basavareddy told press.

“Obviously it means a lot. I haven't had much experience on clay, so I don't know if I was really expecting this, but I still thought I'd have a good chance today if I played well, and that's what I did.”

From Fritz’s side, the 28-year-old felt his opponent executed one area of his game extremely well that ultimately proved insurmountable to overcome.

“Typically when someone is drop shotting me too much, I kind of just tell myself, ‘okay, I need to hit the ball deeper.’ He was hitting insane drop shots, like, off balls that were landing on the baseline.

“He really cooked me with the drop shots today. I was very impressed with his feel.”

Both players came to Paris from the Gonet Geneva Open. Basavareddy qualified before falling in his main-draw opener to Jaume Munar, while Fritz was eliminated in his first match back from a lingering knee injury by Alexei Popyrin.

Of course, he's a Top 10 player. He's had so many great results, but I think it just makes it a little bit easier in the sense that I'm completely the underdog. There's no, really, expectations. Basavareddy on facing Fritz

While the former Stanford Cardinal standout aims to reach the third round of a major for the first time, Fritz once again looks toward a surface change to turn a corner. In 2025, after falling in the first round of the French Open to Daniel Altmaier, the Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. native raised trophies in Stuttgart and Eastbourne before producing a run to the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time in his career.

“I never really thought about what the plan was if I didn't do well. It was kind of just easy if you're an American. If you win three rounds of the French Open, you're probably going to stay over in Europe. If you don't win three rounds, then you go home,” Fritz said.

“I already have a blueprint from last year. I lost first round. Whatever I did last year worked really well for me going into the grass-court season. I think I'll probably just stick to that.”

Basavareddy awaits the winner of fellow 21-year-old Californian Alex Michelsen and Kazakhstan's Aleksandr Shevchenko.

“Shevchenko is probably a little bit more clay-courter. Michelsen, I've known him for a long time,” commented the current world No. 148.

“We've already played, I don't know, six times in our life, a couple of times on the pro tour. So I definitely know him better. That would be a fun match. I don't think there's a real preference here.”