By Rory Carroll
INDIAN WELLS, California (Reuters) – Tallon Griekspoor upset top seed Alexander Zverev 4-6 7-6(5) 7-6(4) in a marathon second round clash at Indian Wells on Friday.
The Dutchman collapsed on the court after converting his sixth match point to end an absorbing three hour, seven minute affair under sunny skies on Stadium One court.
“I’m incredibly proud. It was such a mental battle to beat him,” Griekspoor said after claiming the win over the German, who had dominated their head-to-head matchups coming into the contest.
“I beat him once but then lost the next six times so it was such a mental thing. Happy to finally get it out of the way.”
Zverev served for the match in the second set but was unable to get over the line and Griekspoor edged him in the second set tiebreaker to force a decider.
Griekspoor failed to convert five match points with the match on his racket at 6-5 in the third but regrouped to win the deciding tiebreak.
It was Griekspoor’s first win over a top five opponent in 19 attempts.
“Finally,” Griekspoor wrote with a smiley face on the TV camera lens after the hard fought victory.
Griekspoor will face big serving Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in the third round.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Indian Wells, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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