35th-ranked Griekspoor arrived in Monte Carlo on the back of a lost ATP 250 final in Morocco, where Italian Luciano Darderi beat the Dutchman at the first clay tournament of their seasons. Meanwhile, Arthur Fils arrived in the microstate for his first gravel tournament after not having played a tennis match since his quarter-final defeat to Jakub Mensik in Miami.
Griekspoor and Fils fought out an intense first set in which the Frenchman put heavy pressure on his Dutch counterpart. The 27-year-old Dutchman faced and beat 8 break points from Fils, four of which came in the twelfth game as the set approached the hour mark.
As Griekspoor maintained his heavy approach to playing at the net, Fils found it hard to crack the code in the first set as Griekspoor won 9 of 11 net points. An early mini-break in the tiebreak got Griekspoor playing freely, which resulted in a second mini-break at the bottom of the tiebreak and eventually the set win.
A thigh injury required Griekspoor to take an injury break, which the Dutchman returned from with mere seconds remaining on the clock. With his left thigh carefully taped, Fils got off to a hot start with a break in the first game of the second set. Without giving away any games of his own and pushing Griekspoor to fend off five break points, Fils convincingly took the second set.
Griekspoor grew frustrated on the clay of Monte Carlo - even more so when he got hit with a time penalty after Griekspoor complained about the crowd, which Arthur Fils swayed to make noise - but kept a close distance from Fils in the opening phase of the third and final set.
Growing increasingly unable to challenge a neatly playing Fils, however, cost Griekspoor two consecutive service games and eventually a point penalty after smashing his racket before the start of the eighth and final game.
Griekspoor could not maintain the level of his net game, which brought him close to clinching the match early on. The Dutchman only played 9 net points in two sets after winning the same amount in the first set alone. The loss means Griekspoor exits his second ATP 1000 tournament of the season in the first round after making it to the quarter-finals at Indian Wells in March.
20-year-old Fils will now face Flavio Cobolli in the second round of the Masters tournament in the Mediterranean.
View all the match statistics on Flashscore.
