Photo credit: Christopher Pike/Getty
Five match points had slipped from Tallon Griekspoor’s grip in a gut-wrenching 12th game.
Resetting, Griekspoor put painful past behind him with a fierce forward finish.
On his sixth match point, Griekspoor blocked a forehand volley toppling top-seeded Alexander Zverev 4-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(4) in a pulsating three hour, seven-minute marathon match at the BNP Paribas Open.
"I can sit here and have excuses, but at the end of the day I'm just not playing good tennis at the moment," Zverev told the media in Indian Wells afterward. "It's as simple as that. I'm not playing a level that I want to play, definitely not playing anywhere near what I played in Australia.
"This is the end result of, I don't know, yeah, maybe Australian Open. But I'm just, yeah, I'm just disappointed with my game. That's No. 1 thing for me."
It’s a historic win for Griekspoor, who was rewarded for attacking on pivotal points. Griekspoor, who fell to Zverev in the 2024 Indian Wells third round, will face Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard in round three.
World No. 2 Zverev, seeded first at a Masters 1000 for the first time, became the first top seed to lose in the first round at Indian Wells since 2017 when Vasek Pospisil upset Andy Murray.
“Finally,” Griekspoor wrote on the court-side camera lens after a win that was years in the making.
Armed with an ignominious 0-18 record vs. Top 5 players and a 1-6 career record vs. Zverev, a gritty Griekspoor earned a first at last.
It was Griekspoor’s first career Top 5 win and it came a week after he made a spirited stand fighting off four match points in the second set stunning top-seeded Daniil Medvedev 2-6, 7-6(7), 7-5 to fight into his first Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships semifinal.
World No. 43 is the first Dutchman to defeat a Top 2-ranked player on hard courts since No. 76 Raemon Sluiter stunned No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt at the 2002 Stockholm.
The Australian Open finalist Zverev fell to 4-4 since his run to the Melbourne final suffering his first opening-round exit in a year. Zverev was 23-1 in first-round matches since the start of 2024.
Given world No. 1 Jannik Sinner is serving a three-month suspension to settle WADA's appeal of his doping case, it seemd a foregone conclusion Zverev would surpass the reigning US Open and Australian Open champion for the top spot.
Zverev conceded he's not nearly close to playing first-rate tennis right now.
"[No. 1] was [on my mind] in the beginning. Now it's less, because I'm just playing terrible," Zverev said. "So for me, I have to find my game before thinking about that, because to become World No. 1, you have to win tournaments. I'm not past getting first, second round at the moment. So I need to figure that out first."
The top seed broke in the fifth game then zoomed through 12 of his next 13 service points wrapping up a one-set lead.
Despite his years of futility against the German, including a 2024 Indian Wells loss that saw the Dutchman shatter his stick in frustration, Griekspoor shook it off and surged to a 3-0 second-set lead.
The 28-year-old Dutchman delivered a strong hold at 15 extending his lead to 5-2.
When Griekspoor served for the set at 5-3, he tightened up blocking a high backhand volley into net to fall behind love-30. Griekspoor spun a forehand that sailed beyond the baseline as Zverev broke back for 4-5.
The former Olympic gold-medal champion won 12 of 14 points leveling at 5-all.
In the 11th game, Zverev drained errors from the Dutchman scoring his second straight break for 6-5.
An irate Griekspoor absolutely annihilated his Tecnifibre racquet after losing serve. That outburst seemed to soothe him as he broke right back to force the second-set tiebreaker.
Momentum shifts saw Griekspoor seize a 5-3 lead, but he double faulted and Zverev won a serve-volley point to level.
Hammering a massive serve, Zverev got the short ball he wanted but bashed his backhand sitter long handing the Dutchman a set point. Griekspoor spun a forehand down the line to seize the second set.
The dizzying decider was level at 5-all when Griekspoor skimmed the net with a diagonal forehand to break for 6-5.
Serving for his biggest career win, Griekspoor framed a forehand on his first match point, launched a wild wide flying forehand on his second match point the netted a low volley on his third match point.
As tension tightened, Griekspoor denied a third break point in the game with a tricky high backhand volley he made look relatively routine.
On match point No. 4 Griekspoor sailed a forehand deep down the middle. Zverev saved a fifth match point with a backhand pass. A 10-deuce game escalated past 14 minutes. Though Griekspoor fired an ace to save a fourth break point he netted a drop volley and Zverev broke back to force the decider.
After all that drama and disappointment, Griekspoor saw Zverev zap successive aces to deadlock the tiebreaker at 3-all.
Targeting the German’s forehand, Griekspoor drew an errant forehand and slashed a serve down the T for a sixth match point.
This time, Griekspoor closed with that forehand volley and dropped to his knees in exhilaration.