Griekspoor Caps Another Rotterdam Win On His Favorite Court

Tallon Griekspoor
Tallon Griekspoor (photo: ATP Tour video)

ROTTERDAM/WASHINGTON, February 5, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)

Dutch No. 1 Tallon Griekspoor, the only Dutchman left in the ABN Amro Open field as play in the year’s first European ATP 500 reached Wednesday, has been nearly unbeatable in the Netherlands since the beginning of the 2023 season.

Coming into his first-round, first-time meeting against No. 33 Matteo Berrettini of Italy, who was seeking his first Top-50 win since last fall in Vienna, the 43rd-ranked Griekspoor had accumulated an impressive 17-3 win-loss record on Dutch soil.

After their two-hour, 21-minute thriller, in which Griekspoor was unable to touch Berrettini on his serve throughout much of match, the Dutchman electrified the Rotterdam Ahoy Arena crowd on “Kids Day” with a 6-3, 6-7 (2), 7-6 (4) victory.

At a set each and with the decider hanging in the balance – where one point, one mistake, one good shot could make the difference – Berrettini double-faulted to give Griekspoor a 6-4 lead in the decisive tiebreaker. The Dutchman closed out the match on the very next point with a forehand winner – his 24th winner of the match and 12th from the forehand side – that capped a 10-shot rally. It rewarded Griekspoor with his third victory of the season and 10th career triumph in Rotterdam.

“In Rotterdam, it’s always such a tough draw; there’s so many good players,” Griekspoor said in his on-court interview with ATP Media. “I knew from the beginning that maybe this could be a three-tie-break [match], though it ended up being two tie-breaks in the end.”

Both competitors were sharp during their service games, with Griekspoor winning 84 percent of his first-serve points and Berrettini garnering 86 percent of the points on his first serve. There were only two break-point opportunities the entire match and it was Griekspoor who converted his in the first set and saved the only break point he faced from Berrettini during the second set.

Although Berrettini outpointed Griekspoor 97-92, he committed five more unforced errors, 34-29, while finishing ahead with 32 winners to 24.

“Matteo is such a good player, such a high-quality player,” the 28-year-old Griekspoor said. “So, I knew I had to take care of my own games and wait for the one or two chances in his games, which I didn’t really get. I got one chance in the first [set], which I took. It was a battle from the first point to the last.”

With his win over Berrettini secured, Griekspoor moves into the second round against No. 6 seed Stefanos Tsitsipas on Thursday. No doubt, Griekspoor will be given another Centre Court assignment.

“I love playing on this court, it’s by far my favorite court in the world,” said Griekspoor, who has reached the Rotterdam semifinals in each of the past two years and has won 26 indoor matches on the ATP Tour since the start of the 2023 season. “I’ve had so many beautiful wins on this court. This was definitely one of the most beautiful ones. I live for these kinds of days; I live for these kinds of matches at home. It’s an unbelievable privilege to play, again, on this court. I’m so happy how I managed it in the end.”

Fighting until the end, Fils shakes off Lestienne

Coming into Wednesday’s third day at the ABN Amro Open, seeded players had gone 7-0 in first-round matches. No. 7 seed Arthur Fils of France made it a perfect 8-for-8 with his 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-1 victory over fellow Frenchman Constant Lestienne, a 169th-ranked qualifier.

With Fils’ comeback, it marked only the second time in tournament history – and first time since 1984 – that all eight seeds had reached the second round. It was also the first time all seeds had won their opening-round match at an ATP 500 event since 2023 in Vienna.

Fils, who led the ATP with 17 wins at ATP 500-series events last year, struck 37 winners to 51 unforced errors, hit 14 aces and won 73 percent of his first-serve points. He broke Lestienne’s serve six times in 13 attempts and outpointed him 98-79 during the two-hour, eight-minute Centre Court match.

“I needed to fight until the end,” Fils admitted during his on-court interview with ATP Media after winning his fifth match of the season. “I knew it was going to be a tough match. He made so many tricky shots. It was the first time in my life that someone was doing a winner to me with a slice. It was very tough but I’m proud with how I dealt with the match. I didn’t get frustrated at the end of the first set. I fought to play better and better. I felt quite OK at the end.

On Thursday, Fils will face lucky loser Daniel Altmaier of Germany in the second round. The 93rd-ranked Altmaier, a last-minute replacement for ailing Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard of France, won a three-sets battle of one-fisted backhands over 75th-ranked American Aleksandar Kovacevic, who on Sunday finished runner-up to Auger-Aliassime at Montpellier. Altmaier, ranked 93rd, came from behind to win 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 in an hour and 48 minutes on Court 1. He outpointed Kovacevic 76-71.

Around the Rotterdam Ahoy

• Qualifier Andreas Vavassori of Italy advanced to play World No. 3 and top seed Carlos Alcaraz of Spain on Thursday after winning by retirement over No. 23 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, who three days ago lifted his second ATP 250 trophy of the season at the Open Occitanie in Montpellier, France.

While the Canadian prevailed in a first-set tie-break, Vavassori rallied to level the match by winning the second set 6-4. However, at the conclusion of second set, Auger-Aliassime retired from the first-round contest after an hour and 40 minutes. He appeared to be suffering from a foot injury suffered late in the second set. Vavassori had accumulated 23 winners – five of them on service aces – and converted two of three break points. He outpointed Auger-Aliassime 68-66.

“I’m really sorry for Felix, he’s an unbelievable player and it was an honor for me to play against him,” the 317th-ranked Vavassori said in his on-court interview with ATP Media. “This is the best indoor tournament of the season, so I’m grateful to be here, and I have to show that doubles specialists are also good singles players. I’m very proud to be in this position. We’ll see against Alcaraz, it’s a great opportunity.”

Vavassori, the World No. 11 in doubles, is playing his first tour-level singles event for the first time since the Paris Olympics last summer. His win over Auger-Aliassime is the biggest of his career after going 0-8 against Top-30 players.

After the match, Auger-Aliassime updated his condition via social media, indicating a problem with his right toe.

• No. 57 Fabian Marozsan of Hungary advanced to the second round after defeating No. 45 Jan-Lennard Struff of Germany, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 (3), in an hour and 55 minutes on Court 1. Next, Marozsan will face No. 4 seed Andrey Rublev of Russia on Thursday.

• The upper half of the doubles draw played their first-round matches on Court 1. No. 1 seeds Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador and Mate Pavic of Croatia, defeated lucky losers Petr Nouza and Patrik Riki of Czechia, 6-3, 6-2, in 58 minutes to advance to the quarterfinal round against Hugo Nys of Monaco and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France, who defeated French pair Sadio Doumbia and Fabien Reboul, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2).

Also advancing to the quarterfinals were: No. 4 seeds Nikola Mektic of Croatia and Michael Venus of New Zealand and unseeded Sander Gille of Belgium and Jan Zielinski of Poland.

Wednesday’s Rotterdam results

Thursday’s Rotterdam order of play

By the numbers

Richard Krajicek, now the tournament ABN Amro Open tournament director, who won the Rotterdam title twice (1995, 1997) has recorded the most wins in tournament history for a Dutch player. His win-loss record at the tournament was 16-6. He’s followed by Paul Haarhuis (15-10), Jan Siemerink (12-11), Tom Okker (11-5) and Tallon Griekspoor (10-7).

“Quotable …”

“I didn’t know what to expect, because I didn’t have time to practice. … I only had one, and sometimes that’s not enough. … In the beginning, I didn’t know what to expect from the conditions, but then after one, two games I started to feel that this court is not easy to hit [on]. The balls got really big, but then I started to get more comfortable because I like the game where you play a lot of rallies, you have to pay attention [to the] tactics.”

– World No. 10 Andrey Rublev, during his on-court interview with ATP media, following his first-round victory over Zhang Zhizhen on Tuesday.

 

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