Bill Simons and Vinay Venkatesh
PARIS
It was completely obvious. No. 172 Thiago Seyboth Wild was zoning. His forehand was on fire.
The best defensive player in the game, Daniil Medvedev, was reeling – fighting for survival against a Brazilian qualifier who hadn’t played all year and had never won a Grand Slam match.
Seyboth Wild (who perhaps was best known for the difficult pronunciation of his name and a domestic abuse charge he now faces) had two set points to go up two sets to love up. When he was up 6-4 in the second set tiebreak, he did what young players so often do: he choked.
Thiago made a hash of two forehands and botched an easy overhead as Medvedev took the second set 7-6 (6). Certainly the savvy Russian would promptly put an end to the absurd thought that a shock upset was brewing. “Enough of your audacity,” the Russian seemed to say. “Don’t you know I just conquered Rome? I’m the No.2 seed. I’ve won more matches and more titles than anyone this year – know your place!”
Never mind that Daniil forged ahead and easily claimed the third set 6-2. The Brazilian with an armful of tattoos didn’t care. He just started tattooing the velvet court with winners. “It’s another storming forehand,” said Radio Roland Garros. “Seyboth Wild is absolutely crushing it and Medvedev is just watching it go by.”
Somehow the Brazilian had blocked out his wretched second-set choke. He knew it was a five-set marathon. He reminded himself that he’d seen Medvedev play 1,000 times. The 23-year-old understood his own game plan: “create angles and try to impose your forehand.”
In a howling wind, Daniil had little control. When he complained about a line call, the crowd went bananas. “I just told them to shut up because I was discussing it with another woman and they should shut up.”
After the match Medvedev said he’d played well, and he felt Thiago could reach the top 30 this year. Still, Daniil recalled having clay in his mouth since the third game of the match, and joked, “I’m always happy when the clay season is over.”
What wasn’t a joke was the way Seyboth Wild blasted 69 winners, stepped up big time in the moment and, more than anything, held his nerve against a wily Grand Slam winner and a former No. 1 who’s known for his grit and mid-match adjustment, his astounding IQ and his gamesmanship.
The man whose last name is not pronounced “wild” scored one of the wildest upsets in French Open history, a 7-6(5), 6-7(6), 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 win in 4:15. Okay, his triumph will never be compared with the great finals Roland Garros has given us (Rafa, Roger, Agassi, Courier and Yannick Noah come to mind).
It will not give us an indelible French Open memory, like Michael Chang standing on the baseline and serving underhanded against Ivan Lendl in the 1989 fourth round. And it isn’t even the greatest Brazilian tennis moment in Paris. Gustavo Kuerten won Roland Garros three times and famously drew a heart on the court after he avoided a catastrophic 2001 upset. And, of course, Wild’s win won’t have the historical impact of Robin Soderling beating Rafa in 2009.
But it does bring to mind one of the greatest first-round upsets of all time when No. 129 Jelena Dokic stunned No. 1 Martina Hingis in 1999 at Wimbledon, just after the Swiss broke down during a staggering loss to Steffi Graf at the French Open. Writer Ian Woolridge promptly went overboard and claimed, “The sheer enormity, the staggering implausibility… this hard to ignore defeat heaps humiliation on the shame she already felt.”
So let’s not go overboard ourselves. Rather, let’s note the obvious and say that Thiago’s win today was one wild upset.
WEIGHT OF EXPECTATIONS: Coco Gauff knows a thing or two about pressure. Ever since she broke through as a nothing-to-lose 15-year-old at Wimbledon, she’s felt the weight of expectations. And coming into Roland Garros, last year’s French Open finalist knew she’d have to defend her 2022 result. But there was good news. Her first-round match was against Rebeka Masarova, whom she’d clobbered 6-1, 6-1 in January. But her Spanish foe came out of the blocks and zoned in the first set. She broke early and managed to defend eight break points as she captured the first set 6-3. But the 19-year-old Gauff, who is already in her fourth French Open, is a fighter. She used her speed, athleticism and backhand to win twelve of the next fifteen games and quickly turn the match around, to win 3-6, 6-1, 6-2.
THE GOAT WHO CANNOT AVOID CONTROVERSIES: There was a recent violent protest between Serbians and NATO peacekeeping forces in Kosovo that resulted in injuries to the soldiers. And, at Roland Garros, after his opening match, Novak Djokovic, who fiercely opposes Kosovo’s independence, wrote, “Kosovo is the heart of Serbia! Stop violence.”
QUOTEBOOK
“She has a beautiful face.” Sixteen-year old Russian Mirra Andreev, who won today, on Coco Gauff.
“F–k last year’s final!” – a defiant Gauff who is tired of thinking about her French Open 2022 loss
CELEBRITY MAGNET: The charismatic Frances Tiafoe loves the sizzle of the big stage – and celebrities love him right back. Queen Latifah and the NBA’s Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah all showed up on small Court 7 to see Tiafoe prevail in his opening-round match. Tennis sages wondered whether there’s ever been a celebrity lineup like this at a first round French Open match on an outer court.
