Tallon Griekspoor continues winning ways in Rotterdam with three-set win over Alexander Zverev

Dutch wildcard Tallon Griekspoor advanced to the quarter-finals of the Rotterdam Open by edging out German Alexander Zverev, the No 8 seed, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 at the Rotterdam Ahoy on Wednesday evening.

The Dutchman has historically found inspired tennis when playing in Rotterdam – he improves to 4-0 against top 20 competition at the event with his triumph over the world No 17.

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Zverev played a strong opening set, but couldn’t keep his level elevated across the two hour and four minute contest. The German drops to 3-5 on the season as he continues to rebuild his confidence after tearing three ligaments in his right ankle last June at Roland-Garros. He missed the remainder of the 2022 season after surgery and has only just returned to the tour.

Griekspoor, the hometown hero, was more than happy to spoil the party for Zverev. He dug in and converted a break in the second and third sets. Zverev pushed in the third set but Griekspoor saved three break points in the fourth game to hold for 2-2 before breaking at love for 4-3.

The Dutchmen won 12 of his final 14 service points as he locked up his victory to improve to 9-1 on the season.

Griekspoor, ranked No 61, will play the winner of the match between Dane Holger Rune, the No 4 seed, and Dutch wildcard Gijs Brouwer next.

Ahead of his victory, the Dutchman beat Swede qualifier Mikael Ymer (7-6 (7), 7-5).

Zverev, ranked No 17, won against SoonWoo Kwon (6-4, 7-6 (4)) in the previous round of the Rotterdam tournament.

Rotterdam ATP250, other second-round results (Rotterdam Ahoy, hard, EUR 2.074.505, most recent results first):

• Holger Rune vs. Gijs Brouwer
• Stefanos Tsitsipas vs. Jannik Sinner
• Maxime Cressy vs. Alex De Minaur
• Daniil Medvedev vs. Botic van de Zandschulp
• Gregoire Barrere vs. Felix Auger-Aliassime
• Grigor Dimitrov beat Hubert Hurkacz (5): 7-6 (4), 7-6 (5)
• Stan Wawrinka beat Richard Gasquet: 6-3, 6-3