Griekspoor started strong on court 15, won his first service game on love and then convincingly broke Nagal. He immediately gave up the lead, but at 2-1 and 4-1 the world number 40 placed breaks again and after half an hour he had the first set.
In the second set Griekspoor continued to play strongly and he also managed to win that set in just over half an hour. Set 3 was evenly matched until 5-5, but in the eleventh game Griekspoor lost his service game.
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He managed to get to a tiebreak and was 6-4 behind. He wiped out the two set points of the world number 73 and finished it in straight sets. The match lasted 2 hours and 20 minutes.
Griekspoor will face Sebastian Baez from Argentina in the second round. The number 21 of the seeding list defeated the Italian Luciano Darderi in the first round in four sets: 6-4 6-7 (3) 6-0 7-6 (4).
Last year Griekspoor lost in the opening round in New York. Arthur Fils from France was too strong then.
In addition to Griekspoor, Botic van de Zandschulp is also participating in the men’s event. He will compete against Canadian Denis Shapovalov on Tuesday.