Tallon Griekspoor stunned top seed Daniil Medvedev on Thursday at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships for the biggest win of his career.
The Dutchman dug deep for a 2-6, 7-6(7), 7-5 victory, in which he saved four match points before converting the fourth of his own to reach the semi-finals at the ATP 500.
Griekspoor, who fended off three match points against Roman Safiullin in the first round and overcame defending champion Ugo Humbert in the second, is into his eighth ATP Tour semi-final (3-4).
“I’m super happy with this win,” said Griekspoor. “I had to fight off a couple of match points in the second set… Daniil is an unbelievable player, an unbelievable competitor. He’s been at the top of the rankings for so many years, so I’m very pleased with this win.
”I thought he played so well in the first set. I didn’t do badly, he was just too good. I just tried to stay tough with it, even though I went a break down in the second. When I broke him back, I felt like the momentum went a little bit my way. I was a little bit lucky on the match points down, and in the second-set tie-break. I even needed a few match points myself to finish this one off.”
Griekspoor will face fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas, who earned a hard-fought 7-6(5), 1-6, 6-4 win over Matteo Berrettini to reach his first semi-final since July last year.
In the other half of the draw, Felix Auger-Aliassime continued his impressive run of form by recording his Tour-leading 15th win in 2025 (15-4). The Canadian, who won titles in Adelaide and Montpellier this year, defeated Marin Cilic 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 to reach his fourth semi-final of the season.
“It’s been a great start,” Auger-Aliassime said of his start to 2025. “Of course there’s the work, but then it’s just [about] seizing opportunities. Sometimes you have to be fortunate… This week I won three three-set matches that went back and forth. Now the level is so high everywhere, the margins are really small, but I’m glad that it went my way again. Another semi-final, it’s great.”
The former World No. 6, Auger-Aliassime will face qualifier Quentin Halys, who reached his first ATP 500 semi-final by rallying from a set-and-a-break deficit to overcome lucky loser Luca Nardi 2-6, 6-3, 7-6(5). The Frenchman, who stunned World No. 9 and 2022 Dubai champion Andrey Rublev in the first round, is up to No. 58 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings.
“The end was crazy,” Halys said after his two-hour, six-minute victory. “We were missing some easy shots and playing some unbelievable rallies… I’m super happy about the win and how I handled the end of the match. I’m coming from the qualies, I didn’t have many matches before this tournament. The way I’m playing this week is crazy good.”
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