Griekspoor hadn't won a game on the ATP Tour since returning from a hamstring injury he sustained during February's Dubai Tennis Championships, where the Dutchman was forced to forfeit the final against Daniil Medvedev.
On the back of three consecutive losses in Marrakech, Monte Carlo, and Munich, Griekspoor, who's fallen out of the top 32, was paired up with 84th-ranked Damir Dzumhur at the masters tournament in Madrid.
It was Dzumhur who dealt the first blow in a disappointing second service game for Griekspoor, who dropped his first game to the Bosnian after conceding his third break point.
The highest-ranked Dutch player fought back fiercely, winning four games on the spin en route to a 6-3 set win, mainly overpowering Dzumhur with a strong net game by winning 7 of 8 net points.
Griekspoor continued his fine form by breaking Dzumhur at the first time of asking in the second set, but had to put up a big fight and was squared up by his Bosnian counterpart after four games. The pair fought closely from there on out, and it took a marathon 14-point game for Griekspoor to restore his one-break lead and claim a first victory since February.
Musetti up next
In the third round in the Spanish capital, Griekspoor will face his biggest foe yet: 9th-ranked Lorenzo Musetti, whom Griekspoor last met at the ABN AMRO Open in Rotterdam in February 2024, where he beat the Italian in a three-hour-long thriller. Griekspoor and Musetti are set to play on Sunday, April 26th.
