After grabbing just his second match win of the calendar year in the first round, Tallon Griekspoor returned to centre court on Wednesday to face Frenchman Quentin Halys in a bid to make it to the semifinals of the ABN AMRO Open in Rotterdam for the third time in his career.
The two started strongly and battled out an entertaining first eight games in the late Wednesday match, which saw Griekspoor come close to striking first after some excellent defensive work and sloppy serving from Halys, who hadn't won a single point on his second serve but stayed alive after fending off three break points.
Griekspoor grew increasingly frustrated after Halys started improving his service game, which cost the Dutchman three break points after conceding as many aces. Halys left his first won second serve until the best moment, winning a marathon game to go up 5-4.
A quick recovery in his own service game and a first break of the game, which was made possible by a double fault and a pair of unforced errors, got Griekspoor in prime position to clinch the set, which he did after 57 minutes.
Tight second set
The Dutchman opened the second set with an imperious service game, which saw him hit 18 of his first 19 serves on the first go and drop just two of his 18 first service points. However, the set was by no means his to win after Halys cleaned up on his unforced errors and stayed in control of his own service games.
Griekspoor was forced to recover in his own final service game of the second set, eventually making it into the tiebreak after Halys dropped a 30-0 lead.
In the tiebreak, Griekspoor struck first with a mini-break on the very first point, but conceded one himself after narrowly missing a baseline shot. The Dutchman quickly lost his lead, but pulled off an acrobatic point to potentially save the tiebreak. An unforced error gave Griekspoor the chance to serve for the match, but he missed both match points and eventually served to stay in the tiebreak, earning himself one more match point, but Halys kept up his staunch defence.
Halys turned the tide in the tiebreak, leaving Griekspoor to serve for survival again with the Frenchman on set point. With the score at 9-9, Griekspoor hit the ace but conceded a quick serve-and-volley point and missed a volley to hand Halys another set point.
The Dutchman's fifth match point finally landed, earning Griekspoor his third quarterfinal ticket in Rotterdam in four years.
Griekspoor will face either Felix Auger-Aliassime or Hamad Medjedovic in the quarterfinals. Their round-of-16 matchup is scheduled as the first match of Thursday's evening slate.
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