Great comeback in Rotterdam, following in the footsteps of some legends
At the home tournament in Rotterdam, 25-year-old local hero Tallon Griekspoor offered viewers a real crime thriller with a happy ending. Victories from a clear deficit and saved match points, here are some that have stuck in our memory.
by Armin Leiter
last edit: Feb 08, 2022, 06:53 pm
Dutchman Griekspoor did something in front of his home crowd against Aslan Karatsev in Rotterdam that doesn't happen every day. He was already 2: 6 and 2: 5 behind, in the third set he fended off 2 match balls at 4: 5 from his point of view and then secured victory in the tie-break with a 7: 0. You don't forget these victories so quickly, some of these emotional rollercoaster rides from the past, also with German participation, here in retrospect.
Mischa Zverev saw no land for a long time in the first round in Miami 2019 against Nicolas Kuhn, 4: 6 and 2: 5 here the intermediate result. After 8 match balls saved and a 7:5 in set 2, Kuhn unfortunately had to give up in the third set when the score was 2 to 2 and Zverev was one round further.
Big Four comeback wins
The Big Four also gave us some of these special games in their era, Roger Federer for example at the Australian Open 2020 against Tennys Sandgren from the USA. In the quarter-finals, the Swiss player fended off 7 match points before he won the fifth set 6-3 and advanced to the semi-finals.
Federer himself was twice the player who suffered in similar situations, both times against Novak Djokovic and at Grand Slams. In the semifinals of the US Open 2011 and in the final of Wimbledon 2019, the Serb managed to break Federer after a 40:15 lead and turn the game around. Both games are probably among the classics of the last 10 years, the final of 2019 only ended with 13:12 in the deciding set.
Rafael Nadal provided a similar highlight at the ATP Finals 2019 when he beat Daniil Medvedev 6: 7, 6: 3 and 1: 5 behind and a match point saved 7 to 6 in the third set. In the end, however, this was a match with a lot of great rallies, but without any particular added value, as both players were eliminated after the group phase.
Dubai 2017, Augsburg's Philipp Kohlschreiber missed 7 match balls against Andy Murray , number 1 in men's tennis at the time, in the tiebreak, 38 points were played in this alone, the result was 20:18. The ball is particularly memorable here at 8 to 9 from Murray's point of view, Kohlschreiber's reaction says it all.