No. 6 seed Daniil Medvedev lost in the first round of the French Open for the seventh time in 10 appearances at Roland Garros, dropping a five-set match to Australian wild card Adam Walton, 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 on Tuesday on Suzanne-Lenglen Court.
Other seeds to exit in Paris on Tuesday included No. 9 seed Alexander Bublik, No. 20 Cameron Norrie, No. 29 Tallon Griekspoor and No. 30 Corentin Moutet.
Medvedev melted down in the heat, took a verbal lashing for his on-court behavior from his wife seated courtside but still had a chance to put away Walton, the 97th-ranked men’s singles player who was 4-9 this season entering his first clay-court match of the year.
Walton, who played in the second round at the French Open in 2025, trailed 4-2 in the fifth and appeared to be more ragged than his opponent in the match that lasted three hours and 22 minutes.
He required a medical break after the second set to take a salt tablet as neither player found much consistency until the decider.
And it was Walton who gained his second wind. He took the next four games to oust Medvedev and beat him for the second time in their three career matches. Medvedev dropped to 0-4 in five-set matches in the French Open, 10-10 in his career.
“Pretty tired now. It was an up and down match. I felt like the ebbs and flows of the match were quite large today,” Walton said post-match in an on-court interview. “Just really proud of my efforts in the fifth set to come from a break down to get the win. It’s huge. Beating him in Cincinnati (in 2025) definitely gave me the belief today. I knew I could do it. I believed. Just really happy with performance. Just really excited right now.”
Catapulted by his first win over a top-10 opponent, Walton will oppose American Zachary Svajda, who beat Australia’s Alexei Popyrin 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3), 7-5, in the second round.
Bublik lost 7-5, 6-7 (6), 6-4, 7-5 to Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff. The Russian-born Kazakhstani, who was a quarterfinalist last year, had a chance to serve out the fourth set but hit two straight double faults, grabbing his shoulder and requiring a medical timeout in between. The 36-year-old Struff then won four games in a row for the victory.
Griekspoor of the Netherlands fell to 104th-ranked Matteo Arnaldi of Italy 6-7 (9), 6-3, 7-6 (6), 6-3. Arnaldi won every service game in the fourth set without dropping a point and earned the win on his first match point.
Moutet of France lost a five-set marathon to unseeded Vit Kopriva. The Czech hit 61 winners in the four-hour, 20-minute match to defeat Moutet 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
Norrie retired after 78 minutes down 7-6, 2-0 down to Paraguay’s Adolfo Daniel Vallejo. It was the first time in 12 years the reliable Brit has retired from a match and the first time he hasn’t made it past the first round of a Grand Slam since the 2024 Australian Open.
Not all seeded competitors in action struggled in the same way on Tuesday. Top-seeded Jannik Sinner began his pursuit of the career Grand Slam with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 sweep of France’s Clement Tabur.
Fellow Italian and No. 14 seed Luciano Darderi swept Sebastian Ofner of Austria 7-6 (5), 6-2, 6-3, No. 16 Valentin Vacherot of Monaco beat French qualifier Thomas Faurel 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (6) and No. 18 Learner Tien won his opener, 6-0, 2-6, 6-0, 6-2 over Chile’s Cristian Garin.
No. 4 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada needed five sets and over four hours to beat Germany’s Felix Altmaier 4-6, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7).
In other Tuesday evening action, Frenchman Moise Kouame became the youngest winner at Roland Garros since 1991. The 17-year-old downed former U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic in his grand slam tournament debut, 7-6, 6-2, 6-1.
Cilic was 20 and a top-20 ranked men’s player the day Kouame was born.
With vocal support from the home crowd, Kouame played well above his current ranking of No. 313 in the world with poise and precision to keep the 37-year-old Cilic, playing in the French Open main draw for the 18th time, off-balance.
Kouame advances to take on Vallejo.
In unseeded action, Roman Andres Burruchaga beat fellow Argentinian Sebastian Baez 2-6, 7-5, 6-2, 2-0 after the latter retired in the fourth set due to a right knee injury. Argentina’s Juan Manuel Cerundolo swept Great Britain’s Jacob Fearnley 6-2, 7-6 (0), 7-6 (7) and another Argentinian, qualifier Facundo Diaz Acosta swept China’s Zhizhen Zhang 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.
Portugal’s Jaime Faria took care of Canada’s Denis Shapovalov 6-4, 7-5, 6-4, Spain’s Martin Landaluce outlasted Juan Carlos Prado Angelo of Bolivia, 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 6-7 (3), 6-4, Chile’s Alejandro Tabilo swept Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 and Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas advanced when France’s Alexandre Muller retired down 6-3, 2-0 due to a leg injury.
–Field Level Media
