The top American seed at the 2025 French Open was eliminated as No. 4 Taylor Fritz lost his first round match against Daniel Altmeier on Monday. He is the best species from a boys or woman draw to get out of tournaments so far.
Fritz’s defeat was decisive, falling 7-5, 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, continuing his struggle at clay court. It was recently demonstrated by a first round defeat to Marcos Giron at the Italian Open and a fourth exit with Casper Rood at the Madrid Open. Fritz is 3-4 in clay this year, including his third defeat to Gael Monfils at the Australian Open.
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Nonetheless, losing so quickly is a disappointment for Fritz. Fritz appeared to have taken a significant step forward in his progress to last year’s US Open Finals. It is also a rear step at Roland Garos, where Fritz reached the fourth round of last year’s tournament.
The defeat to Altmaier, ranked 47th in the world, is the earliest exit from Fritz’s French Open since he fell to Guido Andreozzi in the first round in 2018.
So far, Fritz is 17-9 in 2025 despite being fourth in the world.
Fritz suffers from his forehand, a particularly surprising development as he only had eight winners in it. Overall, he notched 34 winners and 41 forced errors, losing 12 of the final 16 games of the match. Meanwhile, Altmaier was pretty much against it, earning 46 winners and 37 forced errors in the match, breaking Fritz’s serve five times.
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Altmaier moves forward to face Vit Kophiva in the second round of the tournament.
“It was very special,” Altmeyer said after the match. “I think I’ve been working really hard to gain confidence over the past few weeks. I’m prepared for these kinds of matches. Anyone who faces me feels ready to play. I’m really happy to get this first win.
Monday was not friendly to the American seeds of Roland Garos.
