Tallon Griekspoor explains what happened to the balls in his match against Jannik Sinner

Tallon Griekspoor was able to make it through his match against Jannik Sinner in challenging circumstances.

Griekspoor had lost all six of his previous matches against Sinner, who was the defending Shanghai Masters champion.

However, the humid conditions have been causing havoc in Shanghai, with one ATP player admitting he struggled to breathe.

They even had an impact on four-time Grand Slam champion Sinner, who was forced to retire after heavily cramping in the third set.

Now, after reaching the fourth round of the Shanghai Masters for the first time, Griekspoor has revealed what happened to the balls in his match against Sinner that also made things challenging.

Tallon Griekspoor explains what happened to the balls in his match against Jannik Sinner

The humid conditions did not just appear to be impacting the players, but also the balls at the Shanghai Masters.

Griekspoor and Sinner hit a combined 64 winners in their time on court, but the former has suggested that they would have hit more if the balls were not getting so big.

“Yeah, I mean, the court is, the balls are extremely slow,” Griekspoor said in his post-match press conference. “The balls are like bowling balls, they’re so big, especially in the night.

“So, after a couple of games when they’re getting older there’s not much to do. Even though I think we’re both guys who can hit through the ball, through the court, but very, very difficult to do so here in the evening.

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“Yeah, like I said, I felt comfortable in the rallies today against him. I felt like he couldn’t really put me away in one, two shots. Yeah, like I said, pleased with the way how I did it.”

Tallon Griekspoor pinpoints the moment where he got ‘lucky’ against Jannik Sinner

Griekspoor is the lowest ranked player to beat Sinner on a hard court since August 2023, but it nearly did not happen.

After losing the first set, Griekspoor was serving at 3-4 and found himself 0-40 down, but after hitting two aces Sinner still had one more opportunity, but hit an unforced error.

Griekspoor has since admitted that this was a lucky moment for him, as he was then able to break Sinner to help him force a decider.

“Yeah, like I said, especially that Love-40 on 4-3 where I served I think two aces, and got lucky on one where he missed the ball,” said the Dutchman. “Yeah, just tried to stay in there, hang in there, do the best I can, and give myself a chance towards the end of the set.

“Then, out of nowhere, I broke him on 5-all, and it all went a little bit my way. So, yeah, pleased with my own performance, and looking forward to the next one.”

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