SAVING four match points and producing the biggest win of his career, Dutchman Tallon Griekspoor is into the Dubai Tennis Championships semi-finals. The world number 47 ousted tournament favourite Daniil Medvedev in an epic three-set encounter, needing two hour and 40 minutes to defeat the Russian number one seed, 2-6 7-6 7-5.

Griekspoor looked on the ropes during the early stages of the second set when Medvedev lead 6-2 3-1 and looked on track to romp to victory. However the Dutchman immediately broke back and went all teh way to a decider, saving four match points in the set. The first two came when Medvedev was 40-15 up in the 10th game of the second set, with another couple of chances saved two games later.

Incredibly the tiebreak did not result in any more match point chances, though neither player could get more than a point clear until Griekspoor converted his third set point opportunity to send the match to a decider. From there, it went all the way to 5-5, with Griekspoor then holding comfortably to go a game clear, and needing four match points of his own in an incredible final game to grind out the win.

“I’m super happy with this win,” Griekspoor said post-match. “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 avoided a third straight encounter with Matteo Berrettini in back-to-back-to-back tournaments after the Italian went down to an inspired Stefanos Tsitsipas in another quarter final. The fourth seed Greek also needed three-sets against the former world number six, winning 7-6 1-6 6-4.

Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime moved two wins away from winning an incredible third title in 2025, defeating Croatian veteran Marin Cilic 6-4 3-6 6-2 and set up a semi-finals date with French qualifier Quentin Halys. The Frenchman overcame Italian lucky loser Luca Nardi after going a set down, 2-6 6-3 7-6.