The Athletic has live coverage of Day 3 of the 2026 French OpenPARIS — Jannik Sinner’s path to the French Open final just got a a bit smoother.Daniil Medvedev, who has played Sinner as tough as anyone the past two months, lost his first-round match to Adam Walton of Australia Tuesday. In a three-and-a-half-hour duel, with all the bizarre twists, dips and flips that Medvedev’s opening matches at Roland Garros are famous for, Walton registered a 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 win with a scoreline as enigmatic as the man who landed on the short end of it.Down the stretch, Medvedev looked to have finally wrestled control of the match from an opponent without much success in Grand Slams or on clay. Serving at 4-3 in the fifth set, Medvedev doomed himself with two poor, predictable drop shots. Walton had started to see them early long before that, but the quality had been too good for him to catch up with.
Walton pushed his way through the open door, then resisted Medvedev’s efforts to close it again. The Australian saved multiple break points at 4-4 to put the match on Medvedev’s racket. The Russian, who just 12 days ago had made life pretty miserable for Sinner, fumbled it away, committing four consecutive errors: a drop shot that fell meekly into the net, a backhand drive volley that could have bounced, a double fault, and another drive volley long.“Up and down match,” Walton said, who got his first win over a top-10 player.Walton felt like Medvedev was rolling just three games from the finish line. He was a point away from going up a double-service break. Walton told himself to just keep it close. Then, as the match tightened, he held Medvedev off and sapped his momentum.Medvedev’s loss opens the way for Sinner to have a reasonably stress-free stroll to the final, if such a thing exists. Ben Shelton is a potential quarterfinal opponent, but Shelton hasn’t gotten close to Sinner lately. Felix Auger-Aliassime, the No. 4 seed, remains on his side of the draw, but clay has never been his forte.May 26, 2026Connections: Sports EditionSpot the pattern. Connect the termsFind the hidden link between sports terms
