After a decent, but well below 2023, 2024 season, Griekspoor had arguably the best season of his career this year. While he was far from consistent throughout the season, the highs more than make up for the lows: he reached his first ever Grand Slam second week, his first Masters 1000 quarterfinal, won a third career ATP title, and he beat Alexander Zverev and Jannik Sinner when both were ranked #2 in the world and Daniil Medvedev when he was ranked #6 (the three biggest wins of his career ranking-wise and as many top 10 wins as he had prior to 2025). He also had a seven-match losing streak after Wimbledon that went until Shanghai, but clearly the highs outweigh the lows.
Slow start
Griekspoor didn’t start 2025 well, losing in the first round at the Australian Open to Hubert Hurkacz (granted, a very difficult draw), in the quartefinals at Montpelier to a much lower ranked countryman in Jesper de Jong and then in his home tournament in Rotterdam (where he had only lost to Jannik Sinner in the two previous editions) to a very out of form Stefanos Tsitsipas in the second round, a match he had a lot of chances to win.
Massive wins in Dubai and Indian Wells, and first Masters 1000 quarterfinal
The first high point of Griekspoor’s season came in these two consecutive tournaments. In Dubai, he beat defending champion Ugo Humbert in the second round and followed it up with the best win of his career ranking-wise up until that point, saving four match points on the way to beating Daniil Medvedev. He lost in the semifinals to Stefanos Tsitsipas, who had his best week of the year in Dubai, but it was still a fantastic tournament for the Dutchman.
In Indian Wells, he drew his nemesis Alexander Zverev in the second round so prospects weren’t great. Constant close losses after wasting many opportunities against Zverev had been the main reason why Griekspoor’s 2024 hadn’t been more successful, so it was a huge moment for him when he finally converted his sixth match point of the match (after failing to serve for it) to beat the German, his biggest ever win at that point (Zverev was ranked #2). He capitalized on it and reached his first ever Masters 1000 quarterfinal, losing a relatively close three-setter against Holger Rune at that stage.
Best ever Slam result at Roland Garros
The clay season was a mixed bag for a Griekspoor; it started quite well with a run to the final in Marrakech, which he then lost in two tiebreaks to Luciano Darderi. His Masters 1000 results were pretty lackluster, but he had a good run in Munich, where he once again ran into Zverev in the quarterfinals and once again put himself into a position to beat the German. This time, however, he couldn’t hold his nerve and ended up losing despite serving for the match in the second set, with Zverev eventually going on to win the title.
The highlight was without a doubt his first ever run to the second week of a Slam in Roland Garros, albeit with a very soft draw. In the fourth round, he once again ran into Zverev (who he had led by a double break in the fifth set at the same tournament the previous year) but this time injury prevented him from competing and he had to retire early in the second set.
Second career title
Perhaps the biggest moment of Griekspoor’s season came at the end of June in Mallorca, where he didn’t drop a single set en route to his third career title. One of the players he beat was Felix Auger-Aliassime, who, despite being ranked #27 at the time, would end up 2025 ranked #5. All things considered it was an incredible first half of the season for Griekspoor, one he couldn’t really replicate in the second half of the year.
Losing streak
Fresh off his Mallorca title, Griekspoor was routined by Jenson Brooksby in the first round at Wimbledon, then barely won his first round match in Bastad before going on a seven match losing streak in Bastad, Canada, Cincinnati, Winston Salem, US Open, Chengdu, and Beijing, often to much lower ranked players with very lopsided scores. He was struggling with his tennis and with his confidence, and there were no signs that something big might be coming for him.
Defeating Jannik Sinner
The only highlight of Griekspoor’s second half of 2025 came in Shanghai; he snapped his losing streak in the first round by getting revenge on Brooksby for the Wimbledon defeat and then became one of only three men to beat Sinner in 2025 (along with Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Bublik), with the world #2 retiring down a break in the third set. In the following round, he suffered a heartbreaking defeat to Valentin Vacherot, which will surely have left him wondering about what could have been after seeing Vacherot go all the way to win the title.
In Vienna, he beat Karen Khachanov and withdrew from his quarterfinal against (again!) Zverev, before losing his opening match in Paris to Diallo. All in all, it was a very positive 2025 for Tallon Griekspoor, but the only way he can remain in the Top 30 going forward is by getting back to his early 2025 form; if he plays like in the second half of the year he won’t be able to stay even in the Top 50 much longer.
Main Photo Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images