Tallon Griekspoor reached the second round after beating Lorenzo Sonego in straight sets - his first straight-sets win since May - and faced a fresh Alexander Zverev, the tournament's top seed who hadn't played since losing the Wimbledon final to Jannik Sinner.
The first set was business as usual for Griekspoor, who served well but won just 9 of 32 service points before reaching his first break point in the 12th game. Zverev recovered and forced a tiebreak, making it Griekspoor's sixth match with a tiebreak in the last eight.
It was all Zverev in the opening-set tiebreak, racing to a 5-0 lead before giving Griekspoor his first point through a double fault. The Roland Garros champion needed three of his five set points to see off Griekspoor and take the first set inside an hour with an ace.
Griekspoor broke the trend the first time of asking in the second set, breaking Zverev and taking over the momentum in the match. The Dutchman carried this on for the next three games, taking a two-break lead against Zverev, who had trouble in both serving and returning.
Zverev mustered up some energy to get back to 5-2, but it was Griekspoor who finished the job and capped off a sublime second set with 16/19 won service points.
The German top seed got back in his rhythm, but found no way past Griekspoor's service in the third set either and fell behind once again - Griekspoor played a nigh-on perfect game to break Zverev for a third time and go up 3-2.
After a second timeout for a medical emergency in the stands of Center Court, Griekspoor continued his push and forced a seventh break point while on a 4-2 lead. Zverev defended well to level the game once more, hit an ace to take the lead, and forced an error to stay in the running.
Saving the break point seemed to have reinvigorated Zverev, who responded by forcing a break point for the first time in the match and got the rebreak with a stellar winner. Griekspoor responded by getting to break point twice during a crucial ninth game and redeemed the second, allowing him to serve for the match.
Consecutive unforced errors earned Griekspoor a statement win in Montreal, where top seed Alexander Zverev was eliminated in the second round of the Canadian Open.
Griekspoor, who beat Zverev for the first time since Indian Wells in 2025 and for the third time in his career, awaits a third-round matchup with the winner of the match between Fabian Maroszan and Matteo Arnaldi.
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