The best players in the sport are on clay this week at Roland-Garros, or the French Open, for one of tennis’ four majors. But, some have lost first round matches in surprising upsets that have left some of the best and brightest in the sport stunned.

Like Daniil Medvedev, the eleventh best player in the world, who lost to Britain’s Cameron Norrie in a five-set thriller. Medvedev, the Russian star, has had notable issues on Roland-Garros’ iconic clay surface. He said in his post-match press conference, “Honestly man, I might skip the clay-court season next year. F*** clay.”

Medvedev has had on the court issues with traction on the surface. Personally, he just hates dirt. The locker rooms are dirty for his liking, you must clap your shoes out to get rid of the dirt, your car gets dirty. He does not like dealing with it.

It was Norrie’s first win over Medvedev in their five total meetings, dating back to 2019. Medvedev actually won 166 points in the match to Norrie’s 159, but it was a timely 7-5 win in the final set that did the trick. Medvedev goes home, and Norrie goes on to face Federico Gomez on Thursday.

Taylor Fritz, a 27-year-old American, also lost in round one play. He lost a first set 7-5, and responded by tying the match with 6-3 win. Daniel Altmaier went on to win 6-3 and 6-1 to beat Fritz in four sets.

Unlike Medvedev’s loss, Fritz was outscored. But, a statistic that stands out is the ace category, which Fritz won 14-7. Altmaier also double-faulted four times to Fritz’s zero.

Fritz is fourth in the world as of now, and holds a 17-9 singles record this year. He also made the US Open final, a three-set loss to World #1 Jannik Sinner, in 2024. At the time, Fritz was World #12 and it was quite a surprise he had made it that far in that Grand Slam event.

Fritz has been battling right oblique issues for months, but said to reporters he was “100-percent” before the tournament started. He was then asked about that comment after the loss, and plainly said ““My movement on court is really bad. I don’t know what’s going on. A lot of times when I’m sliding, I’m off balance, I’m not timing it correctly. I don’t know. I’m getting wrong-footed a lot, slipping a lot.”

Emma Navarro was dominated in her first, and only, round at Roland-Garros. She took 6-0 and 6-1 losses to Jessica Bouzas Maneiro. She lost in points, 56-30. She double-faulted four times. She gave up 11 straight games to Maneiro, a staggering amount from Navarro, who is #9 globally.

It comes in what has been an up-and-down year for Navarro, who hasn’t reached the quarterfinals of any tournament in almost two months, since her quarterfinal round appearance in the Credit One Charleston Open, and holds a 17-12 record in 2025. The 24-year-old is still in search for her first Grand Slam title.

While Medvedev’s loss may be the most surprising of the top-player knockouts, Navarro’s might be the most defeating. It’s how she lost, and what she’s done to this point that put her future in question after Monday’s loss.

Navarro made the semifinal at the 2024 US Open, a loss to World #2 Aryna Sabalenka. It was a breakout moment for Navarro, who was 23-years-old at the time. Since then, she’s 21-15 in the singles play, and people are expecting more.

The next few months will be telling for Navarro, especially a key mark of Wimbledon, which starts on June 30.

The most complex of the losses was Naomi Osaka’s. Osaka is 42nd in the World Tennis Ranking, is unseeded in the tournament, but yet, it feels her loss to #10 Paula Badosa is still an upset. For some, Osaka is one of the few names in the field that they know.

Osaka advanced to the third round in 2016, 2018 and 2019 at Roland-Garros, and has won four Grand Slam events in her career. She’s also a very emotional person and has taken time away from the sport in the past. It’s been a roller coaster ride of a career, and right now, Osaka is feeling a low.

“I feel like as time goes on, I should be doing better,” Osaka said post-match. “But also … I hate dissapoiting people.” Seconds later, Osaka walked off in tears after what was certainly a dissapointing result in what seems to be uphill climbing for her.

After a win over Patricia Maria Tig in round one of the 2021 French Open, Osaka withdrew from the tournament, allowing Ana Bogdan a forfeit win. Osaka didn’t return to action until the 2020 Olympics1 in August, and returned to regular tennis action two weeks after that. Osaka also took a maternity leave in 2023. She will also surely have the spotlight on her for a multitude of reasons going forward to try and restore what was once an unbeliavably promising career.

Luke Brown is a rising sophomore at Rowan University, studying Sports Communcation & Media. He’s an up-and-coming sportswriter, and contributes to newspapers including PennLive, NJ.com and The Sentinel. Please consider subscribing to support Luke’s work.

Subscribe now

These were the words that greeted Olympians from around the world in the opening ceremony in Paris’ 2024 games. They were also the words that began NBC’s notorious montage to conclude their coverage of the games on Sunday night. It was a montage that included the best video and audio clips from the past two and a half weeks, strung together to the tune of “Titans’ Spirit”, a soundtrack from the film Remember the Titans.

The video begins with shots of the Eiffel Tower, a monument that we would’ve thought could not get any more iconic. It will now forever resemble an incredible Olympic games. LeBron James is highlighted as the flag bearer in the opening ceremony, shared with Coco Gauff, becoming an instant hit as many appreciated what could’ve been LeBron’s final games.

Then, the montage begins with the games.

There is so much to appreciate from the last two and a half weeks. It seems every single day fans across the world were treated to a new spectacle. Sunday, the final day of the games, it was USA women’s basketball winning by one point against the host French team that lost on a failed game-tying three pointer, which was ruled a two with Gabby William’s foot on the line.

It was played on the same court where the USA men’s basketball team beat France the day before in a close battle, ending in a USA gold which seemed highly unlikely when the US was down double digits at halftime of their semifinal game against Serbia.

Earlier in the games, we saw Katie Ledecky dominate the pool again at the Olympics, most notably winning the 1500 meter by over ten seconds, a new Olympic record just one hour, 13 minutes after she swam in the 200 meter race. Ledecky said names in her head throughout the long 1500 meters, names of those who push her every single day.

In the same pool, we saw an unbelievable invested French crowd for their phenom Leon Marchand, who dominated the pool winning five medals, four of them gold. “It was shocking for me when I went on the poolside and I heard the pool just going crazy,” said Marchand in an interview on the TODAY show. “I’ve never seen that before as a swimmer. I was just so grateful for this week.”

On the golf course, Le Golf National, we saw a one stroke win from USA’s Scottie Scheffler, who’s become notorious for not only golf domination we haven’t seen since Tiger Woods, but also an even-keeled nature that leaves many fans looking for his moments of emotion. In Paris, we received that moment as the world’s top golfer became emotional on the podium, hearing his national anthem played on the world’s grandest stage.

Another dominant star is Simone Biles, one of the greatest Olympians of all time, who struggled emotionally and performance wise in the 32nd Olympiad in Tokyo, and thought “the world hates me” after her tough performance three years ago. In Paris, Biles, and “The Golden Girls”, did anything but struggle, winning the team gold medal as the oldest group of US Gymnasts to compete, hence the Golden name. It was so easy to tell that this was the thrill of victory to follow the agony of defeat.

Who can forget Noah Lyles, who entered the games as the fastest man in America, and now the fastest man in the world. The 100 meter race was the closest run we’ve seen since the 1980 games in Moscow, as Lyles beat Kishane Thompson by five-thousands of a second, a photo finish for the ages, a redemption race for Lyles after struggling with the 100 meter run previously.

Paris provided one of the best venues for tennis as Olympians competed at the coveted Roland-Garros, site of the French Open, and history was added to the venue when Novak Djokovich defeated the phenom Carlos Alcaraz for the men’s singles title, the Golden Slam for the Serbian Djokovich, who’s now won each grand slam title and an Olympics gold medal. One of the greatest players in tennis history was on his knees, shaking after the historic win. 

Armand Duplantis stole the show on the poles, with a pole-vaulting performance for the ages, winning the gold for Sweden, representing his mom’s home country instead of his. Duplantis grew up in Lafayette, Louisiana and attended LSU, so it was only fitting that the Olympian compared the crowd at Stade De France to an LSU football crowd at Death Valley afterwards. Duplantis had already clinched the gold medal, but decided to raise the bar, literally, and attempt a world record in three tries at 20 feet, six inches. He tried once and failed. He tried twice and failed. On his third try, he would leave either way as a gold medalist, but not resetting the world record. He succeeded on that third and final chance, setting a world record that continues to change, the ninth reset on the record since 2020.

Perhaps the best moment, or at least my favorite, was the young girl sitting in the Paris stands in the pool, who received a glance and a wave from Katie Ledecky after that legendary 1500 meter performance. The fan was overwhelmed immediately by the two second interaction. After 30 more seconds of total freak out mode, she fell into her seat, completely overwhelmed and satisfied on the slight recognition from her hero. 

The truth is, these moments happened every single day during the last two weeks. They happened all over the world, fans of all sorts of sports, people of all sorts of countries and regions, cultures, races, religions.

At the same time, nobody and everybody wins the Olympics simultaneously. 

You win the Olympics by letting yourself be impacted. Being impacted by the closest event the world has to total world peace, and perhaps the closest thing we’ll ever have to it. You win the Olympics by letting John Williams’ “Olympic Fanfare and Theme” be the world’s national anthem. You win by not worrying about why Jayson Tatum didn’t play as much as he perhaps could have, or the questionable choices of the IOC over the years.

None of it really matters.

The ending montage was the perfect encapsulation of the Olympic spirit. The thrill of victory, the agony of defeat, and 1,433 days that will be filled with blood, sweat and tears by every single athlete before the opening ceremony in Los Angeles, California in 2028.