Five things to know about Tallon Griekspoor | ATP Tour

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Five things you should know about Tallon Griekspoor

Learn about Alcaraz’s China Open third round opponent

September 29, 2024

Tallon Griekspoor will look to achieve the biggest success of his career on Sunday evening when he takes on second seed Carlos Alcaraz in the China Open quarter-finals.

ATPtour.com takes a look at five things to know about the No. 39 player in the PIF ATP Rankings ahead of his big match in Beijing.

Tallon reached the high-career World No. 21 November 2023
Griekspoor is currently the number 1 Dutch player in the PIF ATP Rankings. Before 2021 he had never cracked the Top 100. He started his 2023 season at number 95. Winning his first tour-level title at the ATP 250 event in Pune in January 2023, the Dutchman raised his ranking at the start of the season.

A third-round appearance at the Australian Open and a run to the semifinals at the ATP 500 event in Rotterdam saw him move up the ranks. With another tour-level title at the ATP 250 event in ‘s-Hertogenbosch in front of the home crowd and a final run at the ATP 500 event in Washington, Griekspoor continued to improve.

Showing consistency on Tour throughout last season, including notable wins over Alexander Zverev and Hubert Hurkacz, he reached a career high of No. 21 in November 2023.

He made ATP Challenger Tour history
Griekspoor holds the ATP Challenger Tour record for most titles in a season, winning eight titles in 2021. No one else has won more than six titles in a season (Benjamin Bonzi, Sebastian Baez, Facundo Bagnis, Juan Ignacio Chela, Younes El Aynaoui).

In the 2021 season, Griekspoor began his ATP Challenger Tour title run with a win in Prague in May, followed by victories in Bratislava and Amersfoort.

He then won five titles in a row, starting in Murcia, winning twice in Napoli, Tenerife, and the last of the season in Bratislava again. He finished the season with an impressive 8-0 record in the Challenger finals.

He also holds the record for longest streak at the Challenger level in a single season with 25 wins in the same season.

The Dutchman is yet to win the match against Alcaraz
Griekspoor trail the Spaniard 0-3 in the Lexus ATP Head2Head doubles series.

He has never taken the reins of a major championship four times. All the losses came in majors and at three different venues, at the 2022 Wimbledon, the 2023 BNP Paribas Open and the 2024 Paris Olympics.

“It wasn’t my best game, I lost three. I thought that on grass, if you want to hit a guy somewhere, it would be grass in my eyes. But you played well there, I didn’t play very well,” said Griekspoor ahead of their 2023 Indian Wells match. “He is one of the best players in the world, that’s for sure. He is very young. He is injured, he comes back quickly, he plays very well. So it’s going to be really tough, but in the end I really like the challenge of playing him. Why not?”

Carlos Alcaraz defeated Tallon Griekspoor to reach the third round of the Paris Olympics.” style=”width:100%;” src=”https://www.atptour.com/-/media/images/news/2024/09/ 28 /22/04/griekspoor-alcaraz-olympics-2024.jpg?w=100%25″>
^{Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images}
Tennis runs in the family
Born in Haarlem, the Netherlands, Griekspoor started playing tennis at the age of six. His older twins Scott Griekspoor and Kevin Griekspoor are former players. As a child, he used to join the two when they were studying. Scott moved up to a career high of No. 205 and Kevin reached World No. 655.

In 2018, both Tallon and Scott won Challenger titles.

“I always had two boys I watched, six years old,” said Griekspoor. “They were a lot better and stronger than me at the time, so I really enjoyed that.”

Her mother Monique is also a tennis coach.

Family racing history
Griekspoor’s father Ron was a former motocross driver.

“I didn’t do it [motocross] very much me. I did it for fun. The other side of my family, my nephews, do it professionally. In the family it’s tennis and motocross,” said Griekspoor. “Almost every weekend when it’s on, I watch it. It’s part of my youth. I grew up with it and I really like it.”

The 28-year-old is also a huge Formula One fan and enjoys watching fellow Dutchman Max Verstappen.