Tallon Griekspoor scored his first win over a player ranked in the top 20 when he took part in the 2024 Madrid Open.
The world number 25 tennis player was surprisingly able to beat the world number 12 player, Holger Rune, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 to advance to the fourth round of the Masters 1000 tournament for the second time in his career at the Madrid Open.
The tennis player, who is currently 11-23 against players ranked in the top 20, smashed the ball, both with his forehand and backhand, against the Danish player, Rune. He hit 25 winners and won 69 percent of the points when he went to the net before sealing the win after 2 hours 14 minutes.
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“I thought I served amazingly throughout the match,” Tallon Griekspoor exclaimed. “I had a lot of chances on his serve. And I couldn’t get any break point opportunities in the second set, but kept playing my game. Broke it early in the third set, then served really well after that. I feel very happy with my performance this time.”
The 27-year-old’s victory over 11th seed Rune was the tennis player’s second biggest win of the season after he beat then world number 8 Hubert Hurkacz in Rotterdam in February.
Griekspoor, who is now leading head to head against Rune with 2-0, will next challenge seventh seed Andrey Rublev in the fourth round of the Madrid Open.
Meanwhile, world number 8 Rublev continues his efforts to regain his best performance. He arrived in Madrid after suffering four consecutive defeats before he beat Facundo Bagnis in the opening match of the Madrid Open.
After that win, the 26-year-old followed it up with a 7-6, 6-4 victory over the host player, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, including saving five set point opportunities in an epic tiebreak round before he converted his second set point opportunity.
Rublev then broke the 27th seed, Davidovich Fokina twice in the second set before increasingly dominating their head to head with 4-0.
“Alejandro scored really impressive points, so I didn’t get many chances,” Rublev admitted. “I was mentally devastated and i was behind in the first few points of the tiebreaker. I played like I didn’t care and ended up winning the point. Then I started to feel more confident in the second set and started to feel the game better.”
