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ATP French Open: Thiago Seyboth Wild shocks the world

By Nicholas Nathanson

PARIS, FRANCE - MAY 30: Thiago Seyboth Wild of Brazil celebrates victory during the Men's Singles First Round Match against Daniil Medvedev during Day 3 of the Roland Garros on May 30, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Andy Cheung/Getty Images)
PARIS, FRANCE - MAY 30: Thiago Seyboth Wild of Brazil celebrates victory during the Men's Singles First Round Match against Daniil Medvedev during Day 3 of the Roland Garros on May 30, 2023 in Paris, France. (Photo by Andy Cheung/Getty Images) /
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ATP French Open: Thiago Seyboth Wild shocks the world

Daniil Medvedev entered this year’s edition of the French Open playing the best clay court tennis of his career.

He had won 10 of his 12 matches on clay, including winning the ATP 1000 Italian Open.

He was among a top five favorite to hoist a trophy here.

However, none of that mattered.

More than four hours and five-sets later, Medvedev’s dreams stunningly came to a halt.

It came at the hands of 23-year-old and #172 ranked Brazilian, Thiago Seyboth Wild, playing in his first ATP main draw match of the year.

In fact, it was Thiago Seyboth Wild’s first win in a slam ever.

Thiago Seyboth Wild def. (2) Daniil Medvedev 7-6, 6-7, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4

In a back-and-forth five set thriller it was the guy with no main draw experience who overcame a recently dominant clay-court talent in Daniil Medvedev.

While Seyboth Wild claimed just his first win of the ATP tour this season, success on clay is not something new for him.

In fact, the 23-year-old was actually 23-7 in his last 30 clay court matches entering today.

While that may have came at the challenger level, that talent, discipline, and skill carried over early this morning.

Seyboth Wild wowed the crowd at times, dazzling with his surreal drop shot, and hitting seemingly impossible angles from all over the court.

After blowing the chance to go up 2 sets to love, Seyboth Wild recovered, breaking Medvedev’s serve five times in the final two sets to pull of the heroic upset.

In the last two sets he was simply remarkable, with 24 winners and those five breaks.

At 3-2, up a break, Seyboth Wild was broken in what could have been the decisive edge Medvedev needed.

Instead, he came right back breaking again, and winning two of the next three games.

What’s next for Seyboth Wild?

Thiago Seyboth Wild’s miraculous victory moved him up 32 spots in the Live App Rankings to 140.

Next, he will have a shot at continuing his magical run facing the winner of Quentin Halys and Guido Pella.

If Seyboth Wild plays anything like he did today, a run into the next few rounds is quite a possibility.

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