RG '26: SHOCK upsets help Sinner & Sabalenka, Kouame makes history, Osaka stuns again

Daniil Medvedev and Jessica Pegula were the biggest casualties on Day 3 of Roland Garros 2026 which could bolster Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabalenka's title hopes. Moise Kouame earned a historic first round win vs Marin Cilic, while Naomi Osaka made a statement before hitting a ball with the debut of her couture ensemble.

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Roland Garrow's day three started and finished with two big upsets that likely boost the top seeds Arena Sabalenka and Yannick Center's title chances even more. I'll discuss Dino Medvedev and Jessica Bagula's shock losses to lower-ranked aussies, talk Naomi Osaka's eye catch and couture look, and Mois Kwame's historic win. Bonjour, Jimmy Poe Christian Bass Night at Benvenue Allah Christian's Court, where I cover tennis from all angles. If you have not yet already, make sure you subscribe and hit that notification bell so you're notified whenever I post more Rolling Garrett's updates. So the first upset we saw of the day was number six Dinno Medvedev. World number six Dinomedev picking up his seventh career round one Rolling Garrett's exit with a bizarre 6'2, 16, 6'1, 16, 6'4 defeat to 97th ranked Aussie Adam Walton. This is the second straight year that Medvedev has lost in round one at Rolling Garrett's. He lost last year to Cam Nori despite leading by a break in the fifth set. It was a similar story today as Medvedev led 4-2 in the fifth set. And it really could have been a 5-1 advantage for the Russian, but he fumbled two break points against Walton at 3-1. Danil lost the break edge, but he had three opportunities at four-all to break and then serve for the match, but he just could not come through. Then he played a horrendous service game, committing four atrocious unforced errors in a row to hand Walton his first ever top 10 win. This is Walton's second career top 20 win, and his first actually came against Medvedev from the Cincinnati Open last year. So I think this could also be a bit of a matchup issue for Medvedev. We can also attribute this to Medvedev's poor Rolling Garrett's track record. Clay has always been Danil's weakest surface, but he has had success at other clay tournaments like Rome, for example, which he won in 2023. And recently he made the semifinals of the Italian Open, where he pushed Yannick Sander to three tight sets. The question is why does Medvedev struggle here at Rolling Garrett's compare to Rome? I think for one, Danil has lost his edge at the majors. The last time he made the quarterfinals at a major was the 2024 US open. He's had a string of early round exits, first round exits. And I just don't think he plays his best tennis at the majors now. For some reason, I think it could be a mental block. And I noticed it even at the Australian Open where he made the round of 16 because he looked in great form leading into Melbourne. He made or he won Brisbane playing great tennis, but was rather subpar in Melbourne. I also think the conditions at Roland Garros play a bit quicker compared to Rome. Mevedev prefers the slower conditions, and Rome naturally plays slower. Plus, most of his matches at the Photo Italico in 2023 and this year in 2026 were played during the evening time. And thinking back to his 2023 title run, the weather there that year was pretty cool and it was raining a lot. And then also Medvedev's wins over Zverev and Sisi Pass, who are arguably better clay players than him, they both were at night, which further helps his case. Now, answering why Medvedev prefers to play clay matches at night is because his flatter ground strokes are able to stay lower and through the court a little bit more. Meanwhile, here at Roland Garros, especially today with the temperatures being pretty hot, his balls sit up a little bit more. And Walton in this case was able to dictate more because of that. Also, think that Adam hits with more topspin, which then gets the ball higher and out of Medvedev's strike zone, which I think he struggled with a lot in this match. Also, Danil's deeper return position and his defensive prowess just isn't as effective in these types of conditions, and he just was not able to drag out points as long as he would like to. And we saw a lot of drop shots from both guys, really. And I think Medvedev would have preferred to grind out a little bit more from the baseline. Now I think while Medvedev's exit isn't necessarily earth-shattering, I think it is notable because he's one of the few men that I think can challenge this current ultra-dominant Yannick center. A lot of people saw Danil as Yannick's biggest obstacle in the top half of the draw, and now he's gone. Medvedev's exit opens up his section a little bit. It's still a pretty tight three-way race between the remaining seeds: Flavio Kaboli, Lerner Tien, and Francisco Sarondolo. I picked Kaboli making it out before the tournament, but I can see any of those other two seeds also progressing. Medvedev was not the only top 10 player though to lose today. Number nine seed, Alexander Bublik, bit the dust, falling to German, Jan Lenart Struuf, 7-5 in the fourth set. This opens up Ben Shalton's section a little bit more now as he and Francis Tialfo are the two remaining seeds there. The fourth seed, Felix Oger Al-Yassim, narrowly avoided that same fate as Medvedev and Bublik. He pulled off a mightily impressive 4-6-64-466176 win over dangerous German Daniel Altmeyer. A lot of people, including myself, were ringing upset bells, upset alert bells before this match, rightfully so, because Ojay Al Yassim is prone to losing kind of early in the majors, whereas Altmeyer is prone to upsetting players early in slams. And even last year at Roland Garrett's he beat the number four seed Taylor Fritz. And he came close to doing it again here against Felix as he led the Canadian 4-1 in the fifth set. And he was playing lights out tennis. He did take his foot off the gas a little bit and became more air-prone towards the end of the match, which definitely helped Felix. And credit to him though for taking advantage because he still had to win the match in the end in a 10-point tie break. I said in my tournament preview that Felix has a good opportunity in this section. I think he has one of the weaker sections, and that's why I picked him to make the quarterfinals, which would be his first time making the quarterfinals in Paris. Brandon Nakashima in round three wouldn't be easy for per se, neither would Valentin Vashado in round four. But another seed, Cam Norrie, who was here, is now out of the picture after the Brit retired during his match against Daniel Vallejo. Vallejo now takes on 17-year-old French rising star Moïse Kwame, who made history today with his 7-6-6-2-6-1 win against Marion Chilich. Kwame is now the first ATP player born in 2009 to win a major main draw match. Dang, I feel old. Kwame also became the youngest ATP player to win a Grand Slam match since Bernard Tomic, who made the Australian Open second round in 2009 as a 16-year-old. Chilich, who is 20 years Kwame senior, did not show the same level he showed when he won the 2014 US Open or finished runner-up at the 2017 Women in Championships or 2018 Australian Open. But still, Chilich is a good player. He's ranked 46 in the world, and the Croat had two set points up 5'1 in the opener, but Kwame saved them both and remained unbroken on serve for the entire match. As the score line indicates, Kwame cruised to the finish line pretty much. He improved as the match went on, while Chilich only got worse. Merrin committed 34 unforced errors in the second and third sets combined with only nine winners. Now I knew Moise had immense talent, but this was still a bit surprising to me. This was only his second tour-level main draw win. His first came in March at the Miami Open. And Kwame, he's ranked outside the top 300 at 318, but I expect to see him rise quite a bit in the rankings in the next 12 months. He's a great athlete at just 17 years old. He shows a lot of promise. He's dangerous off both wings, and that backhand especially is money. He has a lot of flair too, and I think he'll be entertaining many people for many years down the road. And I think Moïse is much needed for the French tennis community right now. Because Gail Monfis, he just played his final match at Roland Garrow, so maybe it's a little bit of a passing of the torch. I was looking for that passing of the torch through Arthur Feast, but he of course is injured right now, so at least they have Mois for the time being. Kwame also seems to have a good foundation, being coached by Richard Gasquet, who's a former French prodigy himself. And Moise's second round opponent, Daniel Vallejo, is not that experienced himself. This is his slam main draw debut. So maybe Kwame can notch another win to make more history, never know. Now on the woman's side, things were looking pretty much business as usual for much of the day, as nine of the top 10 seeds were into the second round. But at the very last minute, in the very last woman's match of the day, Jessica Pagula suffered the biggest shock of the tournament. The fifth seed lost to the world number 83, Kimberly Burrow, 166363. Pagula wasn't the biggest title favorite coming into Roland Garros, as Clay is probably her weakest surface, but this still is a complete shock. Jessica only suffered one first-round exit out of major in the last five years, which was at Wilmeden last year, and she was in great form the entire season heading into Roland Garros. Burrell is solid, but she had never really done much on Clay, and this was actually her first Roland Garros main draw win. And the match was one-way traffic in Pagula's favor. She was up a set and a break, leading 6-1-2-1. But then Burrell started being a lot more aggressive from the ground. She really took it to Pagula and she attacked the American serve very well and was honestly peaking. She played probably the match of her life. Pagula made a few costly, poor misses in the deciding set, but Brill again played phenomenal. She hit 21 winners, 18 unforced airs in the second and third sets combined. Kimberly also saved seven of nine breakpoints faced in the final two sets, which made a massive difference. And it was really, I think, hard for Pagula to keep her cool at times with those missed opportunities. Now I don't think Pagula's exit shakes things up too too much because her section is still tough. All the other seeds are intact. Victoria Mboko, I think, is now the favorite to come through. The Strasbourg finalist handled Nicola Bartunkova pretty handily, 6'1, 6'2. Although Vicky has Katarina Siniakova next, who could be very tricky, especially on Clay. Also, Madison Keyes looks in better form than I thought. I was worried about her thigh issue, but she dominated her match, only dropping three games. You also got to keep an eye out for Diana Schneider. Now, I do think Jessica's exit helps Arena Sabalenka's title hopes a little bit. She was projected to meet the American Sabalenka was in the quarterfinals. Arena does have a pretty comfortable 9-3 head-to-head record against Pagula, but the American tends to give her some fits. Now, speaking of Sabalenka, the world number one opened the day on Chartrier, Philippe Chartrier, with a 6'4-6-2 win over Jessica Boutas Monero. It was a solid performance from Sabalenka. She finished with 29 winners, 25 unforced heirs. The first set was, I think, a little bit more complicated than what it should have been. She was up a double break for love lead, but got a little bit sloppy. Still, though, I think she finished strong. And I think the warmer conditions here in Paris right now should suit Sabalenka's game well. I think the kick serve will be an even more of an effective weapon in these conditions. And she also will be able to come forward a little bit more as she had a lot of success at the net today. Next up for Sabalenka is Elsa Jackmont up front. Then in round three, Sabalenka could face Daria Kasikina, followed by Naomi Osaka, potentially in round four. And Osaka, she turned heads today before even touching her racket. The four-time major champion enters Suzanne Longlin in a couture piece, brought to life by Swiss designer Kevin Germanier. I talked more extensively about this look on my IG, TikTok, and also YouTube Shorts video, but the walk-on look features a corset and a dramatic pleated skirt and involves upcycling using materials from Naomi's tennis dress and jacket. Overall, the mission of this was to blend athletic wear with high fashion couture. Naomi's actual match dress was gold and featured a lot of sequins. And Naomi said after the match that she feels like she's the Eiffel Tower shining at night. And I honestly love the look. I think she might have outdid herself from the Australian Open. And I've noticed overall that the look seems to have gotten a better reception compared to that Robert One AO look. I think some of it is that people are more accustomed now to Naomi's extraness. And overall, I think again, it's great for the sport as people will literally tune in just to see what Naomi wears. Now there will still be people who think it's ridiculous and too much though, and that's that, and Naomi's gonna keep doing what she's gonna keep doing, and I'm glad for that. Now, focusing on the actual tennis now, Osaka did win her match. She took down Laura Sigaman 6-3-7-6, and this was a good win because Seagamond is a pretty tricky player. She doesn't give players a lot of rhythm and hits a lot of slices and drop shots. Osaka was also trailing 3-5 in the second set and had to save a set point. So again, great win from her. Segaman, by the way, is currently making a few rounds on Xlash Twitter for telling Eurosport that she didn't care about Naomi's reveal and said, I'm here to play tennis, not do a fashion show. I know that comes across as a bit shady and maybe it was, but honestly, I'm not too pressed about those quotes because I mean she's supposed to really not care too much. She's supposed to play a match and she also lost. So maybe if she won, she was like, Wow, I loved it, I was gagging, but she lost. So I I'm not mad at the quotes, all in all. Now Naomi's path at Rolling Girls is tough. Up next for her is Donna Vecich, and Vecich, she definitely has not been playing all that great the last few years. But after Vecich, she would get the winner of Elmanvaro and Eva Jovich. That's gonna be a tough match in itself. Jovich notably got a win, a straight sets win over her good friend Alexiala, 6'4, 6'3. Stefano Sizi Pass, he followed Arina Sablenka on Chartrier, getting a 6'2, 3 love retirement win over Mueller, who was dealing with a right leg injury. It looked like fans, though, would be in for a treat between Coco Goff and Taylor Townsend following City Pass's retirement win. Coco, though, ended up getting a pretty comfortable 6'4-6 love win over her compatriot. I thought this could be a really tricky match for Coco. Not only would she be dealing with the nerves of playing her first match as defending champion, but Townsend has a lot of craft and she can make opponents really uncomfortable with drop shots. She can also be really aggressive with her forehand with these really sharp angles, and then two, she can come forward and pull off a lot of great volleys and put aways. And she did all that well for the first part of the opening set. And she got the first break of the match and had a break point for a double break lead when she was up 3-1. But she sent a return long off of Goff's second serve, and I think the match flipped from that point forward. Goff won the last 11 of 12 games of the match, and she raised her level higher as the match went on, while Townsend could not match it. And Taylor did mention on Instagram that she was dealing with an apparent illness or a flu problem, so that could have been it too. I also think this just would have been a tough matchup for Townsend with this being on Clay. It's hard to out-rally and out-grind Coco. And then when Taylor tries to be a little bit more aggressive and come forward, it's tough to do that on Clay because Coco has more time to retrieve these shots and hit good passing shots. But all in all, it was a solid performance from Coco, who finished with 15 winners, 15 unforced errors. She also finished wrong, hitting just one unforced error in the second set. The only note is that Coco was a bit shaky when trying to serve out the opening set at 5-3 as she had a few double faults consecutively, but again, a pretty impressive win for her. Goff also gave a nod to Althea Gibson after the match, as this year marks the 70th year anniversary of Gibson's maiden slam win when she won the 1956 Roland Girls tournament. Goff said, I think Taylor and I playing on Philippe Chatrier is a direct product of Althea Gibson, and she is right. And I also think Gibson will be tremendously proud of how far tennis has come, as there are so many more black women rising in the sport, black people in general, but focusing on black women. You have Coco, of course, her opponent today, Taylor Townsend, as well as Naomi Osaka, Victoria Mboko, Madison Keyes, Haley Baptiste, and I can name a few other players as well who are killing it on the women's tour. So I love how Gibson's legacy of her being a trailblazer. It will continue to live on years and years and years. Up next for Goff is Mayer Sharif of Egypt, and then still looms a potential third-round opponent in Anastasia Patapova. Goff's potential fourth round opponent, Anakanskaya, eliminated last year's breakout story. Lois Boisson 6'2 6'2. Boisson, she of course suffered a seven-month injury layoff and would now drop outside the top 140, which is just tough for her. But I think that she can work her way back to at least top 40, top 30. You can also see here that 14th seed Ikaterina Alexandrova fell to Camilla Osorio 6'2, 6'4. That was yesterday, and that wasn't a surprise at all, really. And now Alexandrova slides down to 6 and 13 in 2026. Now, really the only entertaining match on Philippe Chatrier was the kaya off between Yan Perry and Helena Kallanina. That match wasn't originally put on Chatrier, but they moved it there because of how quickly the other three matches finished. But Perry delighted the home crowd with a love six, six two, six four win. World number one, Yannick Sinner finished off play on Chatrier at night. He got a 6-1-6-3-6-4 victory over French wildcard Clement Tabour. Sinner, who is now on a 30-match win streak, never felt threatened in this match. He faced zero break points and hit 40 winners, 21 unforced errors. Up next for Yannick is lefty Argentine Juan Manuel Sarundalo, who got a straight sets victory over Jacob Fernley. Sorundalo, he just won a title in Bordeaux, but I'm still expecting Center to have another rather comfortable straight sets win. Looking ahead at some key storylines or things to watch out for for day four, Igos Fiontek and Elena Robacana, they have medium interesting second-round opponents in Sarah Baylick for Shiantek and Baylick, she won the Abu Dhabi title earlier in the year. Meanwhile, Rabakina takes on Yulia Starobseva, who made the finals of Charleston. So maybe they could be challenged a little bit in those matches, but I'm still expecting them to come through. Now, things could get very tricky for them in the third round if Yelena Ostapenko and Haley Baptiste also win their matches. In that same section, there's another interesting second round match between Kaspar Rude and Haman Medjetevich. I'm also looking forward to Bencic against Katie McNally, Jasmine Paolini against Solana Sierra, and Alexander Zverev against Tomas Mahatch. Also, I forgot to mention that there is another young player in the tournament who's no longer with us in the tournament. He hasn't passed. But it's 20-year-old Belgian Alexandra Balloc. He was supposed to play Alex Dumanor tomorrow, day four, but he injured himself. I think it's an ankle injury. He missed stepped and I think slipped a little bit on the tarp while practicing withdrawal from Tekka. So and he had a pretty low-key shady comment or caption to Roland Garros, rightfully so, because the tarps should be further back. So unfortunate news that Glocks will not be competing against given order because that would have been a good match as well. That's all I have for this day three Roland Garros update. And let me know your thoughts on all the results. And if you think that center and Sabalenka's title chances are even stronger now with Medvedev and Pagula out. Also, comment below how you feel about Mois Kwame and were you impressed with his win over Trillic if you did see it, as well as comment below your thoughts on Naomi's outfit. Is it a hit or miss for you? I'll of course talk more about that in my upcoming fashion review video, which should hopefully drop this week. Please, if you have not yet already, make sure you subscribe and click that notification bell so you are notified whenever I post my day four recap video. Thank you all so much for watching and for your support. And I will see you all next time here on Christian's Court.