Fourth seed Fritz out of French Open in first round
French Open 2025
Dates: 25 May-8 June Venue: Roland Garros
Coverage: Live radio commentaries across 5 Live Sport and BBC Sounds, plus live text commentaries on the BBC Sport website and app
World number four Taylor Fritz became the highest-ranked player to exit this year's French Open as he was beaten by Daniel Altmaier in the first round.
The American lost 12 of the final 16 games in a 7-5 3-6 6-3 6-1 defeat by the German world number 47.
Fritz, 27, reached the final of last year's US Open - losing to Jannik Sinner in straight sets - but his poor form in 2025 continued on Court Simonne Mathieu.
He will drop out of the top four as a result, with Britain's Jack Draper moving up a place in the live rankings.
"I think I'm playing generally fine. It's just I'm playing horrendous tennis on a lot of the important points," said Fritz.
"All the pressure, important points, I don't know what's going on. I'm finding ways to just play the worst point possible.
"Physically, I don't really feel that bad. For how I've been most of this year, I feel good."
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Altmaier earned the biggest win of his career by ranking to set up a second-round meeting with 86th-ranked Czech player Vit Kopriva.
The 26-year-old broke Fritz's serve three times as he reeled off the final six games of the match, sealing victory in two hours and 41 minutes.
Fritz reached the French Open fourth round in 2024 but has lost four of his seven matches on clay this year.
Women's ninth seed Emma Navarro also suffered a shock exit on Monday, going out in just 57 minutes as she suffered a 6-0 6-1 first-round thrashing by Spain's Jessica Bouzas Maneiro.
Men's defending champion Carlos Alcaraz made serene progress, beating Italian qualifier Giulio Zeppieri 6-3 6-4 6-2.
Two-time runner-up Casper Ruud avoided any scares, breezing past Spanish qualifier Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-3 6-4 6-2, while 10th seed Holger Rune came back to beat Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 6-3 6-2.
Stefanos Tsitsipas, the beaten finalist in Paris in 2021, also advanced, beating Argentine Tomas Martin Etcheverry 7-5 6-3 6-4.
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