35th-ranked Griekspoor saw off the American Marcos Giron in four sets in the first round and set up a first meeting with Gabriel Diallo, the 54th-ranked Canadian who surprised Francisco Cerundolo with a straight-sets victory in round one.
Griekspoor opened the match strongly and went up 4-1 in the first set after breaking Diallo in his second service game. However, the Canadian youngster refused to back down and forced a twelfth game after denying Griekspoor two set points in the tenth game. The Dutchman still finished the job, breaking Diallo with a love game as he won the first set 7-5.
The two exchanged breaks to open the second set, and Diallo looked to gain another advantage in the third game, but two break points weren't enough to fend off Griekspoor. The same number of break points was enough for Griekspoor to gain a break advantage, but the Dutchman couldn't hang on again as Diallo returned the favour in the seventh game.
A tiebreak was necessary to determine a third-set winner. Griekspoor ran off with it early and received the ball with the set on his racket, but a double fault allowed Diallo to close the gap to 5-3. A winner on his second serve and a fourth mini-break earned Griekspoor his second set after all.
Third-set rout
His Canadian opponent flipped a switch in the third set and raced to a 5-0 lead. Griekspoor's service took a drastic turn for the worse, telling his team he's serving like a "sack of potatoes."
A near-invincible Diallo won 91% of his first service points and won six of eight on his second serve, earning him a devastating 6-1 set win.
Griekspoor dialled the pressure back up in the fourth set and showed a fighting spirit he lacked in the third. The Dutchman took a 3-0 lead, but surprisingly got broken in another twist of the tale.
However, Diallo was on the brink of conceding a second break, but on second serve, the slender Canadian hit a crucial ace to refuse Griekspoor a break point. A double fault put Griekspoor back on break point soon after, and the Dutchman cashed in on it this time, going up 4-2 in the fourth set.
Griekspoor fought to keep the initiative and, in a strange match for the 35th-ranked Dutchman, held it to win the match on a love game. Griekspoor tied his tournament-best at the French Open by reaching the third round, in which he will meet the 103rd-ranked Alexander Shevchenko of Kazakhstan or the American 106th-ranked Ethan Quinn.
View all the match statistics on Flashscore.
