Griekspoor, who'd won just four of his last 10 matches at ATP level, arrived in Paris on the back of a disappointing Challenger tournament in Bordeaux, where 133rd-ranked Nikoloz Basilashvili bested the Dutchman in straight sets in the semi-finals.
At the French Open, where Griekspoor has made it to the second round in each of the last three years, 43rd-ranked American Marcos Giron was the Dutchman's first opponent. The 31-year-old American dealt the first blow with a break in the very first game of the match, immediately forcing Griekspoor to play aggressively.
The 35th-ranked Dutchman, who's without a coach and is currently supported by his brother Scott, fought back with a break in the sixth game, but played a sloppy first set and saw Giron run away with it after his 20 unforced errors cost him dearly.
After the 6-4 set loss, Griekspoor played a much more controlled brand of tennis, which helped him get back in the driver's seat and take the initiative early with a second-game break. Griekspoor scaled his unforced errors back from 20 to four, and didn't give Giron a single chance at breaking him en route to a 6-3 set win.
Griekspoor seemed to have found the way to success as the third set also went the Dutchman's way, this time by upping the net pressure and winning 10 of the 11 net points. His 20 won service points from 23 attempts also reigned supreme as Griekspoor won the third set 4-6 and was now one set away from the second round.
A hard-fought fourth set began with long-lasting games - the first and third games amounted to ten deuces and six break points for Griekspoor, none of which he profited from. The two players kept fighting for every point and dominated on the service points until Griekspoor found some rhythm in the crucial eleventh game, when he broke Giron for the 6-5 lead in games.
A love game secured Griekspoor the match and a fourth-consecutive second-round seed. The Dutchman will meet Canadian Gabriel Diallo in the second round after the 23-year-old surprised Francisco Cerundolo, the 18th-ranked player on the ATP rankings, with a straight-sets win.
View all the match statistics on Flashscore.
Exit Van de Zandschulp
Griekspoor was the first Dutchman to progress to the second round after Botic van de Zandschulp couldn't do the same on the first night of the French Open. Against Emilio Nava, the 137th-ranked player in the world, Van de Zandschulp was sent packing with a straight-sets loss in two hours and 56 minutes: 6-2, 7-5, 7-5.
Van de Zandschulp was anything but clinical on every break point the American surprise gave him, converting on just two of the 10 he was given.