69th-ranked Tallon Griekspoor faces Daniel Merida (ATP-63) on the back of strong outings against top seed Alexander Zverev and Matteo Arnaldi, who were both beaten in three sets in the testy conditions of Montreal. The 21-year-old Merida had a less challenging route to the fourth round, beating Liam Draxl, Ugo Humbert, and Alex Michelsen to reach his first round of 16 at a Masters 1000 tournament.
Griekspoor faced a break point from Merida soon, with a volley mistake setting up a golden opportunity for Merida. Griekspoor responded with a serve-and-volley point, but failed on his second attempt at the same point. With Merida back on break point and Griekspoor attacking the net once more, Merida netted his forehand, allowing Griekspoor to recover and take a hard-fought game.
Griekspoor's persistence in playing serve-and-volley got him in more trouble in the fifth game, conceding three consecutive points en route to the first break of the match. The Dutchman responded by forcing his first break point off the back of a spectacular back-and-forth point, but missed out on the rebreak against an in-form Merida.
The Spaniard continues his march towards a set win, dealing Griekspoor more break points than in all of his previous Montreal rounds combined and finishing the Dutchman off with a love game on break to win the set.
The struggling Griekspoor's woes continued in the second set, which started with a sloppy return game
and a cheaply conceded service game, which included two double faults, including one that earned Merida another break lead.
Just as he looked to mount a comeback and forced a sudden break point, Merida upped the ante again and closed out the game with a drop shot and an ace to take a 3-0 lead in under an hour. That lead grew to 4-0 after Griekspoor committed more errors, including letting a ball from Merida pass mid-swing for it to stay inbounds and giving another break away via a double fault.
Serving to stay in the match at 5-0, a defeated Griekspoor took one more game to avoid a bagel before Merida finished the match at 6-3, 6-1 after 69 minutes. Merida, who reached his first quarterfinals of a Masters 1000 tournament, will face the winner of the match between Learner Tien and Thiago Agustin Tirante.
Check the full match statistics on Flashscore
Paul Winters is Flashscore's Netherlands country manager, having previously worked for Flashscore's Netherlands desk. Paul is an expert on the Eredivisie and also specialises in the NFL, as well as a plethora of other sports. Residing in 'sunny' Katwijk, you can follow all of the news from the Netherlands here.
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