Carnage at French Open as World No.9 and four grand slam champs dumped out on first day

The seventh seed became the biggest casualty on the opening day at Roland Garros.

It was a day of drama on Sunday as the French Open kicked off, with World No.9 Taylor Fritz and four grand slam champions all crashing out in the first round. And Novak Djokovic nearly joined them, coming back from a set down to prevail in four.

Fritz, seeded seventh at Roland Garros, suffered a shock 6-7 (5-7) 6-7 (5-7) 7-9 (11-0) 1-6 loss to 21-year-old Nishesh Basavareddy. It was Basavareddy’s first career victory over a top-10 opponent and made Fritz the highest-ranked player to lose on the opening day.

Four former grand slam champs were also sent packing, with Emma Raducanu, Sofia Kenin, Sloane Stephens and Barbora Krejcikova all falling at the first hurdle. Raducanu failed to win a single game in the first set against Argentina’s Solana Sierra, hitting zero winners and making 15 unforced errors.

The former US Open champ then trailed 4-1 in the second set, but managed to show some fight to eventually lose 0-6 6-7 (4). “It was difficult,” said Raducanu afterwards after making 42 unforced errors in total. “I don’t think I’ve fully processed it yet, so it’s hard to speak about the match right now.”
Stephens lost in straight sets to Sara Bejlek, while former Australian Open champ Sofia Kenin suffered the same fate against Peyton Stearns. Krejčíková, who has two grand slam singles titles in her career, lost in three sets to 20th seed Hailey Baptiste.

Novak Djokovic survives after first-set scare

Djokovic looked like he might be on his way to joining them when he dropped the first set against Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard. But the 24-time major winner rallied to progress 5-7 7-5 6-1 6-4.

“His service is practically impossible to see…Only once or twice in my career (have I seen a serve like it),” Djokovic said on-court of his big-serving opponent.