Alexander Zverev didn’t get to enjoy the top-seeded status for too long at the 2025 Indian Wells Open. He lost already in his first match at the tournament.
Jannik Sinner’s three-month suspension meant a couple of things for Zverev. The first of those was that he got a great chance to overtake him as the World No. 1. The other was that in Sinner’s absence, it was the tall German who inherited the top-seeded spot in Indian Wells.
Of course, the seeding spot can be viewed as “only a number,” but being a top seed at the ATP Masters 1000 tournament is certainly special. However, Zverev didn’t get to enjoy that special feeling for too long.
He came to the United States after having food poisoning in South America. Ahead of the tournament, the World No. 2 player wasn’t even aware of the fact that the surface on the courts in Indian Wells had changed, despite practicing on the courts for a few days.
“New courts? There is a new surface? Feels the same to me, to be honest. I practiced here for four days, but I didn’t notice it. I didn’t know anything about it.”
It seems to be just a weird period on the tennis courts for Zverev, and that showed also in his match against Griekspoor. The Dutch player recorded some impressive wins in recent months, and he added another one in Indian Wells.
But it didn’t seem that would be the case early on in this match. Zverev completely dominated the first set. He didn’t face any break points and used the only chance to break that he had to win the opening set 6-4.
That was an absolutely ideal scenario for the top seed, and things were going well for him also at the start of the second set. The three-time Grand Slam finalist had two break points, but he couldn’t use any.
Instead, he was broken in the following game and fell behind 0-2. Griekspoor then held his serve to lead 5-2 in the second set, but Zverev started an inspired comeback.
The German player broke back and added another break. That meant that at 6-3 and 6-5, he served for the match. But he couldn’t serve it out and despite coming only two points away from the win at 5-5 in the tie-break, Zverev lost the tie-break 5-7, and the third set had to decide the match.
At times, Zverev was too passive in the third set. He fell behind by a break twice, but he recovered each time. He even recovered when he was down 5-6 and his opponent was serving.
Griekspoor had a total of five match points in the longest game of the match, but the top seed saved all of them to force a tie-break.
But that tie-break didn’t change anything for Zverev. His opponent was the better player, and the top seed lost the match 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(4), exiting the first ATP Masters 1000 tournament of the season already in his first match.
