Tallon Griekspoor and Alexander Zverev have met 12 times, with the Dutchman winning three. The next time they meet, there may be a little more bad blood between them.
Griekspoor made some critical remarks about Zverev in interviews released ahead of the Netherlands’ Davis Cup World Group tie with Colombia this weekend.
According to reporting from De Telegraaf, Griekspoor echoed the sentiments of Ben Shelton with regard to Zverev’s incessant and now well-documented ball bouncing before serves.
Griekspoor, who won his lone singles match this weekend, defeating Nicolas Mejia 6-2, 6-4 as the Netherlands defeated Colombia 4-0, said he wasn’t all that interested in watching Sunday’s US Open final between Shelton and Zverev.
He had his own reasons for that.
“There were other sports going on, and I simply have a hard time watching Zverev,” he said. “Especially in this tournament, where he bounced the ball 400 times before every serve.”
Elaborating on Zverev’s serving routine, which was also talked about at length by Shelton after Sunday’s final in Flushing Meadows, Griekspoor added:
“It was really extreme, but it obviously helped him. Maybe I should do the same.”
Griekspoor was also dismissive of the possibility that Zverev could finish the year at No. 1.
“There isn’t a single hair on my head that thinks that Zverev is finishing the year as world No. 1,” he said.
In additional comments released Wednesday on the Cor Potcast, Griekspoor went further, questioning Zverev’s status relative to Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner now that the German has emerged from the Grand Slam season as the only player with multiple major titles.
Griekspoor also went into greater detail about Zverev’s serving routine, saying he believed the German used the extended ball bouncing to disrupt his opponents.
“I think 100 percent that he does it to distract us,” Griekspoor said.
After the comments went viral, Griekspoor took to X to try to downplay them.
“Normally, I don’t react on here, but this is getting out of control,” he explained. “Just said it was tough to watch because of the never ending bouncing.
“Nothing but praise for Sacha for what he’s done throughout this year!”
Yes, I think these long drawn-out ball bouncing episodes are ridiculous. One who think that a professional athlete shouldn’t require so much time to gather their thoughts before serving the ball. Novak did it and several other players have gotten into the habit of bouncing the ball till the cows come home. The next thing that should be addressed are the players who have these long and loud grunts after serving and after almost every stroke.
Kirk
it is absolutely gamesmanship and very unsportsmanlike conduct to the extreme. by controlling the pace of the match and constantly demanding your oponant to wait and wait it is horrible. It is passive aggression at its worst – what zverev is saying is i am in control here and you mean nothing. i hate playing people like this… the tossing the ball while serving is the same issue. venus always does it when she is down. everyone knows what is happening
They need to have a timer to shut this down. It’s bad enough that so many points are just serve winners, we need more opportunities for the player to rally. Very boring for spectators!
This is one of the reason why I preferred to watch women’s tennis because there are rallies rather than just a wham bam, thank you mam.
These complaints are bs. I’ve played tennis my whole life and u learn early on if u want to win u can’t let minor distractions bother u.
There should be a second clock between first and second serves.
You have 25 seconds to get your serve off. You can use that time how you want. Get over it.
25 seconds for the first serve, 12 seconds for the second serve starting when fault is called. The first part is already mandated. Add the second part. Then, as many bounces as one can get in the allotted is fine. I found it annoying to watch. But I watched it as a replay and could reliably skip 20 seconds between points and serves without missing anything. Saved a lot of time avoiding the bounces.
Zverev played really well. Really smart. He took Shelton out of his game and dictated play. Shelton has been steadily improving and will undoubtedly learn from that match. What will he take away? He has to deal with higher slower balls much more effectively. He can’t let gamesmanship ploys get under his skin. And perhaps he can realize more professionalism himself by stopping his appalling cheers at his opponent’s errors. That’s just embarrassingly bad sportsmanship and to my mind is also the same kind and level of gamesmanship he complained about with Zverev.
It’s not clear to me if Zverev was doing his bouncing as gamesmanship or to go through some mental process in preparation for his serve. Either way he demonstrated excellent mental resolve. If it was gamesmanship, to do that so relentlessly was itself impressive. If it was an internal preparation process, again, doing so relentlessly worked well for him. If a second serve clock is implemented, I expect he will adapt.