Challenger Tenerife: Tallon Griekspoor sets a new record
Tallon Griekspoor has secured an entry in the history books of the ATP Challenger Tour. The 25-year-old Dutchman is the first player to win seven tournaments in one season.
by Florian Heer from Tenerife
last edit: Nov 07, 2021, 07:16 pm
In the final of the Tenerife Challenger, held at the Abama Tennis Academy in Guia de Isora, Griekspoor defeated Spanish serve and volley legend Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 6-4.
Griekspoor reached the final on the largest Canary Island with victories over Ergi Kirkin from Turkey, the Russian qualifiers Yan Bondarevskiy, Altug Celikbilek from Turkey and the former Spanish top ten player Fernando Verdasco.
Dream week in Tenerife
In excellent external conditions with lots of sunshine and a pleasant 25 degrees on the center court, the number 88 in the world ranking list Lopez took the serve three times and served the match with his ninth ace after an hour and 18 minutes.
"It was a tough fight today," revealed Griekspoor afterwards. “At the beginning I had a hard time with my serve and had to prepare for the return. In the end I did well and I'm really happy. "
It was the 20th win in a row for Griekspoor on the tour. The last player to beat the right-hander was a certain Novak Djokovic in the second round of the US Open in early September.
Griekspoor has already triumphed this year in Prague, Bratislava, Amersfoort, Murcia and twice in Naples and shared the record for the most tournament victories in challengers with Younes El Aynaoui (1998), Juan Ignacio Chela (2001), Facundo Bagnis (2016) and Benjamin Bonzi (2021), who were each successful six times in one season.
Record broken
Now he has become the sole record holder. “I didn't really think about the record very much. Of course I knew what it was about and now it's nice to have cracked it. In the end, however, it's about constantly improving my game and making progress in the ranking. My goal was to get into the top 100 this season. "
Griekspoor has already achieved this. On Monday the man from Haarlem will be among the top 80 players in the world for the first time. The journey does not end there. In the coming week he will compete at the Challenger in Bratislava. From 2022 onwards, however, it will be on the bigger stage of the ATP tour.
"I had a nice one on the Challenger Tour, but now it's time for the next step," said Griekspoor, looking forward to the new challenges with a smile on his face.