Brazilian Thiago Seyboth Wild, the 172nd-ranked player in the world, pulled off a stunning upset of World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev in the first round of the French Open on Tuesday, May 30, in Paris.
Seyboth Wild rallied from a set down to oust Medvedev in four hours and 15 minutes—7–5 (5), 6–8 (6), 2–6, 6–3, 6–4.
“It was pretty tough. I started cramping in the second set. I did my best and tried to play my best tennis and it worked,” Seyboth Wild said. “I am really happy with the way I played.”
Medvedev blasted 14 aces but suffered 15 double faults among 48 unforced errors. He had 45 winners against 69 for Seyboth Wild, who had 77 unforced errors of his own.
“Walking on court I just wanted to get to the net as much as possible and use my forehand against his and it worked pretty well,” Seyboth Wild said.
Seyboth Wild was playing in just the second Grand Slam main draw of his career.
“I’ve always dreamed about playing on this court, playing this kind of players,” Seyboth Wild said in his on-court interview. “I mean, in my best dreams of even beating them. So it’s a dream come true.”
In the second round Seyboth Wild will face Guido Pella of Argentina, who defeated Quentin Halys of France 6–4, 6–7 (7), 2–6, 7–6 (4), 7–6 (4).
Another match lasted even longer than the Seyboth Wild-Medvedev affair, with another qualifier advancing. Italian Andrea Vavassori took down No. 31 Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia 5–7, 2–6, 7–6 (8), 7–6 (3), 7–6 (9) in five hours and 10 minutes.
No. 27 Yoshihito Nishioka also rallied from two sets down to record a 1–6, 3–6, 6–4, 6–3, 6–3 victory over J.J. Wolf.
Fourth-seeded Casper Ruud of Norway breezed past Swedish qualifier Elias Ymer 6–4, 6–3, 6–2. No. 6 seed Holger Rune of Denmark got past American Christopher Eubanks 6–4, 3–6, 7–6 (2), 6–2, and ninth-seeded Taylor Fritz cruised past fellow American Michael Mmoh 6–2, 6–1, 6–1.
Another American, No. 16 Tommy Paul, dispatched Switzerland’s Dominic Stricker 6–3, 6–2, 6–4.
No. 22 Alexander Zverev of Germany won in straight sets but needed two hours and 43 minutes to get past South African Lloyd Harris 7–6 (6), 7–6 (0), 6–1. No. 23 seed Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina beat Spain’s Jaume Munar 6–1, 2–6, 7–6 (5), 6–1, and 28th seed Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria swept Kazakh qualifier Timofey Skatov 6–0, 6–3, 6–2.
Other winners Tuesday included Genaro Alberto Olivieri of Argentina, Alex Molcan of Slovakia, Max Purcell of Australia, Nicolas Jarry of Chile, Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri, Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori, German Yannick Hanfmann and Frenchmen Arthur Rinderknech and Gael Monfils.
