Griekspoor, ranked 31st in the ATP rankings, hadn't won a match since his second-round win over Andrea Pellegrino in Bastad on July 16th. Since that win in Sweden, Griekspoor lost five consecutive matches against Jesper de Jong in Bastad, Tomas Martin Etcheverry in Toronto, Hamad Medjedovic in Cincinnati, Marton Fucsovics in Winston-Salem, and Adrian Mannarino at the US Open.
With a third seed at the Chengdu Open, Griekspoor had a first-round bye and started his tournament in the second round, where he faced 32-year-old Taro Daniel, who beat Chak Lam Coleman Wong in the first round.
Griekspoor, who'd won just one set in his previous four matches, took control of the set early when he fended off a break point from Daniel and broke the Japanese 168th-ranked player the following game, taking a 3-1 lead in the process. Griekspoor didn't play a compelling set, hitting zero winners and eight unforced errors, but went up 1-0 nonetheless with a 6-3 set victory.
The two exchanged vicious blows in the second set, which saw five consecutive love games between the second and sixth games. Griekspoor and Daniel fought harder in the final three games, which saw Griekspoor fail to convert on a break point and Daniel take the set on his second break point of the match.
The lost set put the momentum back in Daniel's corner, and the Japanese former 58th-ranked punished the frustrated Dutchman again, going up 4-2 on his second break point of the set. Griekspoor did not have an answer to Daniel's serve, putting up a 23% return percentage on 26 points in the final set, as the Dutchman lost his sixth consecutive match.
Taro Daniel grabbed his first top-50 win of the year and reached his first ATP quarter-final since Acapulco in February 2023. The 32-year-old will face the winner of the round-of-16 matchup between Alexander Shevchenko and Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard next.
Check out all the match statistics on Flashscore.
