Former Stanford star Nishesh Basavareddy upsets No. 7 Taylor Fritz at French Open
On Sunday, former Stanford men’s tennis star Nishesh Basavareddy upset No. 7 Taylor Fritz 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-7 (11), 6-1 in the 1st round of the French Open for the first top-10 win of his career. It was the biggest upset of opening day at Roland Garros. Basavareddy became the first American man to beat a top-10 opponent at Roland Garros since Jan-Michael Gambill defeated No. 8 Nicolas Keifer back in 2000.
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“Obviously means a lot,” Basavareddy said after the match. “I haven’t had much experience on clay, so I don’t know if I was really expecting this, but I still thought I would have a good chance today if I played well and that’s what I did. So, really happy to get my first win here.”
The first three sets of the match were extremely close, each going to a tiebreak with each tiebreak being close. Basavareddy could have easily folded under the pressure of being a wild card going up against a top ten player, but instead, he dug deep and found a way to win points when he absolutely needed to. And then, in the fourth set, Basavareddy steamrolled Fritz 6-1, taking firm control of the match.
“Yeah, I took the bathroom break. I tried to reset there,” Basavareddy said of the key to winning the fourth set so handily. “But honestly I wasn’t too upset. I thought I played a pretty good third set. I just had a couple chances, especially at four-all in the game. Missed a couple easier shots, but in the tiebreak, I was just hanging on by a thread. So, I thought if I just kept holding serve, I would get a chance on return. The conditions were getting a little slower and I got a break early in the fourth set and that gave me a lot of confidence getting a jolt of energy.”
There’s the old adage you are only as good as your second serve and that was certainly true in this match. Basavareddy won 33-55 (64%) of his second serve points while Fritz won 22-45 (49%). That ended up making a huge difference in the match given how close it was.
Another key factor was break points. Basavareddy converted 3-6 break point opportunities while Fritz converted just 1-4. Those are always major sources of momentum swings and Basavareddy won the battle on that front.
Third, Basavareddy dominated at the net and exhibited great touch, winning 31-37 (84%) net points while also executing nine drops shots. Fritz in contrast had only one drop shot and won 15-32 (47%) points at the net. Basavareddy simply executed a lot better at the net, making for a decisive victory.
“I mean, that was definitely a part of the game plan today, but with more and more confidence of hitting that shot well, it just kept coming and it worked,” Basavareddy said of the drop shots. “And it worked. I mean, he was so far back. Especially on return and I wanted to kind of move him up and back, make the match a little bit more linear instead of side to side and yeah, after the match, I think Mary Joe said I won like 25 of the 27, which I didn’t think it was that much, but it was obviously working really well. So, I just kept using it, but it’s probably my favorite shot.”
For Basavareddy, this is obviously a massive win. This is his second career win in a grand slam main draw (2026 Australian Open) and his first win at the French Open. To get that first win at the French Open against a top ten player is massive. He should be taking a lot of confidence from this win as he looks ahead to the rest of the tournament. Especially when you consider that he defeated Fritz in four sets, not even needing to go to a 5th set.
“I mean, I think before the match, I was still pretty confident just because he hasn’t had so many matches,” Basavareddy admitted. “I felt I could raise my level in a match like this, but I would say midway through the second set when, it was getting closer to second set tiebreak and I was like if I can get a two set lead, that’s when you start thinking a little bit about the finish line, but then you have to go back to game by game and not try to get ahead of yourself.”
As for Stanford, this is great for their program. A message that head coach Paul Goldstein wants to sell on the recruiting trail is that coming to Stanford can prepare you for grand slam success and this win by Basavareddy is a perfect example of that. No matter what sport, any time a former player who has either graduated or turned pro early finds success at the next level, that automatically reflects well on your program.
“Of course at the beginning, everything was going really well, winning a lot of matches in the challengers,” Basavareddy said of making the jump from college to the professional ranks. “I had a good breakout in the, like my first 250, slam as well last year and then slowed down a little bit when we switched surfaces to clay and grass and I think it was all, yeah, important to learn that. I definitely didn’t expect it, but I think every player has their own sort of journey, sort of path and I think it definitely taught me a lot about who I need around me, what types of scheduling I need to do, what I need to improve on, and yeah, I think it definitely was eye-opening to start I guess losing so much and then kind of figure out how to improve again and now I feel like I’m on the right trajectory. So, it’s been better.”
Looking ahead, Basavareddy will face either Alexander Shevchenko or Alex Michelsen in the 2nd round. Basavareddy is 1-1 against Michelsen at the ATP level with both matches played on hard court. Basavareddy has never faced Shevchenko at the ATP level.
“Right now, I just want to see how far I can go,” Basavareddy said. “Be the best player I can, but of course, if that means having deep runs in grand slams, being ranked top 20, top 10, I don’t know. I don’t know where it will take me, but yeah, just try to do everything I can to be the best player I can…Michelsen is obviously ranked higher, but Shevchenko is probably a little bit more of a clay courter, but Michelsen I’ve known him for a long time. We’ve already played, I don’t know, six times in our life. A couple times on pro tour, so I definitely know him better and that’d be a fun match. So, yeah, I don’t think there’s a real preference here.”
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