Andy Roddick explains why he wasn’t surprised that Taylor Fritz lost in the first round of the French Open

Fritz, who was sidelined for two months with a knee injury prior to the French Open, suffered a first-round exit in Paris for the second consecutive season.

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He entered the tournament as the seventh seed, but the 28-year-old’s defeat was not surprising, according to former US Open champion Andy Roddick.

Andy Roddick reacts to Taylor Fritz’s loss at Roland Garros

Speaking in an episode of Served, Roddick said: “Upset of the day, highest seed that goes down. Taylor Fritz to Basavareddy.

“Listen, this is a huge upset on paper, and not that surprising.

“It’s tough, because, you know, Fritz, one, it’s not his favourite service, and you’re not making an excuse for anyone. Two, the guy loves playing tournaments and is kind of always match tough… has played one match the last two months.

“Finally tried to fix the knee tendonitis, dropped about 12 pounds to try to take some of the weight off of that. Basavareddy has been the opposite and has been playing a lot and been playing pretty well. A lot had to go right tactically for Basavareddy.

“But Basavareddy did a great job. Like, Taylor was never set. He used that drop shot, you know, forehand, backhand.

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“This was definitely a 2026 matchup with just dropping droppers nonstop, left, right. It was a great tactic because Basavareddy doesn’t have the ball speed. I think he was down almost 20 MPHs, forehand to forehand.

“So it had to do something. You can’t just go toe toe with Taylor, the way that he strikes the ball. Was just constantly not letting Taylor kind of get set and strike the ball like he likes to.

“And when you are rusty and you haven’t played, the last thing you want to do is not get any rhythm, right? And not be able to play the points the way that you want to play them.”

Andy Roddick reacts to Taylor Fritz hitting more winners in the match

Despite the loss, Fritz hit a total of 72 winners in the match, compared to Basavareddy’s tally of 51.

“Taylor’s a more aggressive player and creates more speed from the baseline,” explained Roddick, reacting to the statistic. “His error count, I’m guessing, was way higher.

“I’m guessing he did a worse job of defending his second serve. And then that drop shot was just like the ultimate, you know, kind of mix up, right?

“When they went toe to toe, what it tells me is Basavareddy was not getting the upper hand in those rallies, and then he had to throw something in, the serve and volley, the mix up, he was going backhand line early, which opened up the other court.

“So tactically, I think it was a borderline perfect match for Basavareddy. And it had to be.”

Fritz will now have to defend 1300 points during the grass season, having won two titles on the surface last year, as well as making the Wimbledon semifinals.