“Nishesh Basavareddy killed me with his drop shots” – World No. 7 Taylor Fritz

In a stunning first-round upset at the 2026 French Open, 21-year-old American wild card Nishesh Basavareddy defeated world No. 9 and seventh seed Taylor Fritz 7-6(5), 7-6(5), 6-7(9), 6-1. Following the early exit at Roland-Garros, Fritz sat down with the press to discuss his performance, tactical struggles, and his thoughts on Basavareddy’s breakout victory.

Here is the full Q&A from the post-match press conference.

Q. Taylor, obviously you didn’t have a ton of match prep coming into this. What was your overall feeling out there today, and what couldn’t you get clicking the way you wanted to?

Taylor Fritz: You know, I really don’t think my level was that bad, to be honest. I think I — I mean, all things considered, I thought actually I played all right. You know, certain things here and there that I could do a bit better. I wasn’t hitting some of the spots on my serve as good as I could have.

You know, I could have returned a lot better as well, but a bit frustrating, because a lot of times I’m not returning well, it’s more like I’m having trouble just getting my racquet, getting in a good place to make contact. I felt like today I actually had a lot of returns on my racquet, and I just didn’t really hit it well enough and didn’t take advantage of some opportunities. When I look back at it, the first three sets I faced one break point, and I felt like I had some chances to break him.

I did a lot of what I’d say my job normally is. I just failed to convert some chances. I was up a break in the second, I really should have served out the second. In the end, I just wasn’t able to turn it around, and I think he played amazing.

Q. There was a lot of discussion between you and your coach Mike throughout the match, trying to figure out where to set the line in terms of how aggressively you should play it. How were you seeing that, and were you pleased with where you ultimately set that line?

Taylor Fritz: The main thing I felt like we were kind of going back and forth about was where I wanted to stand on the first serve return on the ad side. Because when I stood really far back, he was kicking me back out wide and serve and volleying me. But I felt like when I stood up, then it got very tough — I had a lot less time before the serve got to me.

I felt like I was making more mistakes, and if I didn’t hit a good return, then my core positioning had to be too far up. It would be too easy for him to kind of hurt me on the first ball.

Mike wanted me to step up, and I felt like when I stepped up, it was good for him. He would miss more first serves because he would go for more instead of just kind of kicking in a first serve. But I also felt like when he made the first serve, I didn’t have as good of a play on it as when I was standing back.

I ultimately felt like I could stand back. I just had to do a better job of returning. Sometimes the conversation I have with Mike is we have to identify if something is not working — if it’s the strategy that’s not working or if it’s just me that’s not executing the strategy well enough. I thought that that’s what this particular issue was. I had my racquet on a lot of these returns, and I wasn’t winning points, but I didn’t really want to change it, because I felt like I could do better.

Q. Looking at your season and the knee issues you had entering the clay swing, is there a silver lining here? Do you now get lots of time off to prepare for the grass? And did you have to think about the knee at all today?

Taylor Fritz: Yeah, I mean, I feel it here and there a little bit, but all things considered, I think it feels pretty good right now. Obviously, I don’t know if it’s a false sense of security I’m having because I’m taking anti-inflammatories to make sure I feel good. It definitely got better, but you know, I don’t know how it would actually feel right now without them.

It is nice. I’m going to get more time now to keep going back to the rehab and keep getting it better, hopefully. I think grass is going to be a real test for it. There are so many choppy, choppy steps. It’s really tough on the patella, and that’s kind of where I feel like last year the knee started getting worse for me.

I feel like I was kind of in a similar situation last year. I missed a couple of weeks, came back, didn’t win a lot of matches, lost first round at the French Open, and went into the grass court season somewhere around 20-something in the race. Hoping I can turn it around like I did last year. The good thing is I’m in a very similar spot, and I made it work last year.

Q. Did you have a Plan B for what you were going to do next in case this was the outcome of the match? Do you know what the next two weeks look like for you?

Taylor Fritz: I mean, no. I obviously knew that I haven’t played a lot of matches and I’m a bit rusty. Still, like I said, I really think I played all right today. I think I played better today than I did in my first-round loss last year here.

I do think I’m finding a bit of rhythm. 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.

Like I said, I already have a blueprint from last year. 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.

Q. I’m sure you’ve been aware of or hit with Nishesh before. This is his biggest win.

Taylor Fritz: I actually haven’t hit with him.

Q. Well, you certainly know who he is. He’s been in the pipeline for a while. What impressed you about his game today, because this was a big day for him?

Taylor Fritz: He just played incredibly well. I mean, the biggest thing was just the dropshots were crazy. He was hitting dropshots. Typically, when someone is dropshotting me too much, I kind of just tell myself, “Okay, I need to hit the ball deeper.” He was hitting insane dropshots off balls that were landing on the baseline.

He killed me with that, and there’s not really much I can do about it, like I said. I feel like he’s just hitting insane dropshots off of crazy shots to hit dropshots off of. So, yeah, it is what it is. He really cooked me with the dropshots today. I was very impressed with his feel.