Australian wild card Adam Walton produced the biggest upset of the 2026 French Open so far, ousting sixth seed Daniil Medvedev 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 on Court Suzanne-Lenglen in a first-round contest that swung for three hours and 22 minutes before the world No. 97 closed it out from a break down in the deciding set.
It was Medvedev’s seventh first-round exit at Roland Garros in ten appearances, and it extended his record in five-set matches at the tournament to 0-4. The former US Open champion and one-time world No. 1 has never won a five-setter on the Parisian clay.
The match. Walton broke early and raced through the opening set in just 28 minutes, before Medvedev clawed his way back into the contest with a much-improved second. The Russian leaned heavily on the dropshot through the middle of the match, hitting twelve winners to three in the second set as the rallies stretched out in the Paris heat. He took a salt-tablet timeout at a change of ends in the second and looked the steadier player as the contest moved to a decider, breaking early to lead 4-2 in the fifth.
That was where the match turned. Walton, a point from going 4-1 down, held serve and then strung together four consecutive games as Medvedev unravelled. The Russian made four straight errors in the closing game on serve, including a double fault, to hand the Australian his first career win over a top-ten player.
Walton’s belief. The 26-year-old Queenslander had beaten Medvedev once before, at the Cincinnati Masters last August, and he said that result had given him the confidence to back himself in Paris. “Beating him in Cincinnati definitely gave me the belief today. I knew I could do it,” Walton told reporters after the match. “Just really proud of my efforts in the fifth set to come from a break down to get the win. It’s huge.”
It was Walton’s first clay-court match of the year and only his 13th Grand Slam main-draw appearance. He next faces American Zachary Svajda in the second round on Thursday.
Medvedev’s Paris problem. The defeat continues a difficult relationship between Medvedev and Roland Garros. The 2021 quarter-final remains his only deep run at the tournament, and his game — built around deep-court counter-punching and a flat backhand — has never fully translated to the slower clay. Tuesday’s loss drops his lifetime record at Porte d’Auteuil to 10-10. He becomes the biggest seed to fall in the first round in Paris this year.
Looking ahead. Walton’s reward is a winnable second-round match against the unseeded Svajda, with a potential third-round meeting against a seeded player to follow. For Medvedev, the focus shifts to grass and the defence of ranking points earned during the back half of last season, with Queen’s Club and Wimbledon now the priorities.
