Five facts about Tallon Greek Spoor | ATP tour

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Five facts about Tallon Greek Spoor

Read more about Alcaraz's opponent in the third round of the China Open

September 29, 2024

Tallon Greekpoor will attempt to score the biggest win of his career on Sunday evening when he faces second seed Carlos Alcaraz for a place in the quarter-finals of the China Open.

ATPTour.com looks at five things you need to know about the No. 39 player in the PIF ATP Rankings before his big match in Beijing.

Tallon reached a career-high No. 21 in November 2023
Greekpoor is currently the number 1 Dutch player in the PIF ATP Rankings. Before 2021, he had never reached the Top 100. He started his 2023 season at number 95. By winning his first tour-level title at the ATP 250 event in Pune in January 2023, the Dutchman increased his ranking early in the season.

His performance in the third round at the Australian Open and the semi-final at the ATP 500 event in Rotterdam saw him steadily rise through the rankings. With another tour-level title at the ATP 250 event in 's-Hertogenbosch in front of his home crowd and a final run at the ATP 500 event in Washington, Fransepoor continued to improve.

Showing consistency on Tour throughout last season, including notable wins over Alexander Zverev and Hubert Hurkacz, he reached career No. 21 in November 2023.

He made ATP Challenger Tour history
Greek Spoor holds the ATP Challenger Tour record for most titles in a season and won eight trophies in 2021. No one else has claimed more than six titles in a season (Benjamin Bonzi, Sebastian Baez, Facundo Bagnis, Juan Ignacio Chela, Younes El Aynaoui).

During the 2021 season, Greek Spoor started his ATP Challenger Tour title with a win in Prague in May, followed by victories in Bratislava and Amersfoort.

He then won five titles in a row, starting in Murcia, triumphing twice in Napoli, Tenerife and again the last of the season in Bratislava. He finished the season with an impressive 8–0 record in the Challenger finals.

He also holds the record for longest winning streak at Challenger level in a single season with 25 wins in the same season.

The Dutchman still has to win a match against Alcaraz
Mozespoor is 0-3 behind the Spaniard in the pair's Lexus ATP Head2Head series.

He has never suffered a defeat against the four-time national champion. All the losses have occurred on major stages and on three different surfaces: at Wimbledon 2022, the 2023 BNP Paribas Open and the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

“It wasn't my best match, I lost in three. I thought if you want to beat the man on grass on a certain surface, in my eyes it would have been grass. But he played well there, I didn't play that great,” Greekpoor said ahead of their match against Indian Wells in 2023. “He's one of the best players in the world, that's for sure. He's so young. He's injured, he will come back straight away, he's playing so well. So it will be very difficult, but in the end I really like the challenge of playing against him. Why not?”

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^{Photo credit: Matthew Stockman/Getty Images}
Tennis runs in the family
Greekpoor, born in Haarlem, Netherlands, started playing tennis at the age of six. His older twin brothers Scott Greekpoor and Kevin Greekpoor are former players. As a child, he accompanied the two during their lessons. Scott climbed to a career-high ranking of No. 205 and Kevin reached world champion No. 655.

In 2018, both Tallon and Scott won Challenger titles.

“I've always had two boys to look up to, six years older,” says Greekpoor. “They were much better and stronger than me at the time, so I really enjoyed that.”

His mother Monique is also a tennis teacher.

The family's racing history
Greekpoor's father Ron is a former motocross driver.

'I didn't do that [motocross] so much myself. I did it for fun. The other side of my family, my cousins, do it professionally. In the family it is tennis and motocross,” says Greekpoor. “Almost every weekend when it's on, I watch it. It's just part of my childhood. I grew up with it and I really like it.”

The 28-year-old is also a big Formula 1 fan and enjoys watching fellow countryman Max Verstappen.