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Roland-Garros wrap - Sun May 24

Fritz falls to Basavareddy at the first hurdle on a scorcher of a day in Paris

Nishesh Basavareddy, Roland-Garros 2026, first round
©Clément Mahoudeau / FFT
 - Lee Goodall

It's only the first day of main draw tennis here at the second Grand Slam of the year, but already the tournament has come alive.

On a sweltering Sunday in Paris when temperatures hit a steamy 33c, a total of 40 first round singles matches were finished and we didn’t have to wait long for a couple of big stories.

➡️ Sunday results

➡️ Monday order of play

Taylor Fritz was the first top 10 player to go out when the No.7 seed fell in four sets to fellow American Nishesh Basavareddy 7-6(5), 7-6(5), 6-7(9), 6-1.

The result marked the world No.148’s first top 10 victory and his first on the Roland-Garros clay. “First French Open main draw, and all the support, it's incredible,” said the 21-year-old, who stood watching as a full Court Suzanne-Lenglen crowd chanted his name. 

I didn’t know how my focus was going to be - Marta Kostyuk

In the opening night match on Court Philippe-Chatrier, Novak Djokovic had his hands full for the best part of two hours before finally pulling away from big-serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard 5-7, 7-5, 6-1, 6-4.

Argentina’s Tomas Martin Etcheverry was another seed to go, the world No.28 losing in straight sets 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to Portugal’s No.1 Nuno Borges.

The women’s draw lost just a single seeded player when Clara Tauson fell 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 to Ukraine’s Daria Snigur.

American No.26 seed Hailey Baptiste came mighty close to joining Tauson on the sidelines but saved two match points in a second set tiebreak before scrambling past former champion Barbora Krejcikova.

The 2021 champion missed two successive forehands when she was ahead 6-4 in the second set shootout and that was her chance gone as Baptiste recovered for a 6-7(9), 7-6(6), 6-2 passage into round two.

It was much less stressful for No.8 seed Mirra Andreeva on Chatrier when she made short work of Fiona Ferro 6-3, 6-3. 

Recent Madrid champion Marta Kostyuk made it 12 clay wins in a row when she dealt with the challenge of Oksana Selekhmeteva for the loss of just five games. Afterwards, however, the 23-year-old revealed that before her match she had learned of an overnight missile strike near her parents’ home in Kyiv, Ukraine.

“I didn’t know how my focus was going to be,” she said.

Brazil’s Joao Fonseca had to save a set point before going through 7-6(6), 6-4, 6-2 against French qualifier Luka Pavlovic, and No.2 seed Alexander Zverev was another who beat a French player in straight sets when he powered past Benjamin Bonzi on the main show court.

Other notable names in action included former US Open champion Emma Raducanu, who lost 6-0 7-6(4) to Argentina’s Solana Sierra on Court 13.

And Italy's Lorenzo Sonego left it late to win the longest match of the day. The Italian edged a thriller against French qualifier and former RG doubles champion Pierre-Hugues Herbert 6-4 in the fifth after an eye-watering 4 hours and 9 minutes of battle. They finished at just gone quarter past midnight.

Day 2 of main draw tennis is around the corner with more first round drama lined up. Alix Ramsay selects the pick of Monday's matches.