{"id":665198,"date":"2026-05-26T02:25:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T02:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/665198\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T02:25:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T02:25:28","slug":"carnage-at-french-open-as-world-no-9-and-four-grand-slam-champs-dumped-out-on-first-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/665198\/","title":{"rendered":"Carnage at French Open as World No.9 and four grand slam champs dumped out on first day"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

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\u2019s first career victory over a top-10 opponent and made Fritz the highest-ranked player to lose on the opening day.<\/p>\n

\"Novak<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic, Taylor Fritz and Emma Raducanu at the French Open. Image: Getty<\/p>\n

Four former grand slam champs were also sent packing, with Emma Raducanu<\/a>, 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\u2019s Solana Sierra, hitting zero winners and making 15 unforced errors.<\/p>\n

\"Emma<\/p>\n

Emma Raducanu crashed out in the first round of the French Open.<\/p>\n

(Tim Clayton via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

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). \u201cIt was difficult,\u201d said Raducanu afterwards after making 42 unforced errors in total. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve fully processed it yet, so it\u2019s hard to speak about the match right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stephens lost in straight sets to Sara Bejlek, while former Australian Open champ Sofia Kenin suffered the same fate against Peyton Stearns. Krej\u010d\u00edkov\u00e1, who has two grand slam singles titles in her career, lost in three sets to 20th seed Hailey Baptiste.<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic survives after first-set scare<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

\"Novak<\/p>\n

Novak Djokovic and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard after their match at the French Open.<\/p>\n

(Anadolu via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

As for the Aussie contingent, World No.82 James Duckworth advanced when Gabriel Diallo – ranked 33 places higher – had to quit with the Aussie leading 6-3 4-1. Ajla Tomljanovic was the first Australian casualty, blowing a set and 3-0 lead against American doubles specialist Caty McNally 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a day of drama on Sunday as the French Open kicked off, with World No.9 Taylor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[12083,9660,1701,4039,14538,57758,433,75212,54133,99,2072,428],"class_list":["post-665198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-australian-open","tag-barbora-krejcikova","tag-emma-raducanu","tag-french-open","tag-grand-slam","tag-nishesh-basavareddy","tag-novak-djokovic","tag-sloane-stephens","tag-sofia-kenin","tag-sports","tag-taylor-fritz","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}