Carlos Alcaraz put forward a tremendous performance to beat Tallon Griekspoor at the 2024 China Open, continuing his resurgence.
Alcaraz's resurgence started at the Laver Cup, where the Spaniard played some amazing tennis to become Team Europe's most valuable player and lead them to victory over Team World.
He won the most crucial match, beating Taylor Fritz in two sets, but he also won a few other crucial matches to give his team a chance to win. His excellent performance continued at the China Open, where he did fairly well.
His US Open campaign ended on a very bad note, leaving many wondering whether he would be able to challenge for the World No. 1 spot on the ATP Tour in the remainder of the season.
Finishing this year strongly is important for the Spaniard, and picking up this form ahead of the Shanghai Masters is also needed. The conditions in Beijing suit him well, and it made all the difference in this matchup.
While Griekspoor is a solid player, he looked neutralized in this match. Part of that had to do with Alcaraz playing the way he did, but part of that is also just the conditions favoring the Spaniard far more than Griekspoor.
The Dutch player didn’t have a way to win rallies against the 21-year-old consistently. It was evident early, too, because after three games, it was already 3-0 for Alcaraz.
After five games played, it was 5-0 for the Spaniard. The opening set finished 6-1 for Alcaraz as he completely thrashed his opponent. Griekspoor’s frustration was palpable, but there was simply no way for him to win points.
He tried outhitting his opponent, which was the only thing he could try to do, but it yielded 12 unforced errors and zero winners. The second set didn't bring anything different because Griekspoor isn’t the most consistent player.
He’s very streaky, which means that when he’s playing well, he can perform at a really high level. That’s also true when things go badly, and after that horrible opening set, the Dutch player couldn’t turn around the match.
That was very unlikely to happen, and it didn’t because Alcaraz broke fairly quickly in the second set and then once more to take a 4-1 lead. By that time, Griekspoor was able to hit one winner, but he also added nine unforced errors, which is just how his day at the office went—horribly.
Alcaraz was just too solid and moved superbly well to get to as many balls as possible and send them back. He remained fairly aggressive throughout the match, hitting the ball at a decent level.
He hit plenty of winners and kept the errors relatively minimal, which proved more than enough. The final score was 6-1, 6-2 for the Spaniard, who moved on to the quarter-finals of the ATP 500 event.