Toby Samuel’s French Open adventure ended with a first-round loss to eighth seed Alex De Minaur.
Samuel made it through qualifying on his first attempt at Roland Garros but this was a huge step up given the 23-year-old had never faced a top-100 player before.
He acquitted himself well in hot conditions on his grand slam debut but De Minaur was a class above in a 6-4 6-4 6-2 victory.
Samuel, who was another British player to choose to hone his game at US college, had the biggest ranking rise of any male player last year, leaping from 1,867 in the world to 266.
A great experience for Toby Samuel in his @rolandgarros debut 👏
— LTA (@the_LTA) May 25, 2026
He makes his first-ever Grand Slam main draw appearance in a 4-6, 4-6, 2-6 loss to no. 8 seed Alex De Minaur
A qualifying run to remember for Toby 💙 pic.twitter.com/9dmJsu9vAO
He has continued his ascent this season and arrived in Paris at a career high of 159, making him the British number eight.
Samuel, who grew up in Dorset and now trains at the University of Bath, looked understandably nervous initially against De Minaur, and the Australian was quickly a break up.
But Samuel settled into the contest and briefly threatened to make life difficult for his opponent when he broke the De Minaur serve to lead 2-0 in the second set.
His advantage was quickly snuffed out, though, Samuel bouncing his racket on the clay in frustration, and De Minaur ended the match with a run of five games in a row.
