ROLAND GARROS

June 2, 2025

Tallon Griekspoor

Press Conference

A. ZVEREV/T. Griekspoor

6-4, 3-0 [Ret.]

THE MODERATOR: Sorry, Tallon. Not what you were expecting. Can you walk us through what happened today?

TALLON GRIEKSPOOR: Yeah, unfortunately, this morning and in the warmup with the last couple of serves that I hit, I pulled my abdominal, which, yeah, made me from not serving full and not being able to compete the way I would like.

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English.

Q. Just curious, have you had something like that before? Was it something completely out of nowhere? At what point did you kind of realize today that you wouldn't be able to complete the match?

TALLON GRIEKSPOOR: No, abdominal is the first time for me. I've pulled some muscles before in my body, so I know the feeling.

Like I said, last couple of serves from the warmup I felt it, and I tried everything in the meantime. Made a scan before the match, which showed nothing yet, but that's probably because it's too quick after it happened. They say it needs a couple of hours to show something.

Tried everything with warmup. Felt actually okay in the first set even though I didn't serve harder than 180 and went all the way down to 150 at some point.

So, yeah, of course, tried to go out there. Probably one of the biggest matches of my life against an opponent that I like to play on a beautiful court. So I just want to give it a shot, but yeah, realized pretty early that it was not going to be my day.

Q. What went through your mind leading up 3-0 in the first set and being injured?

TALLON GRIEKSPOOR: Well, yeah, like I said, I started off pretty well. I think he was also -- I caught him off guard a little bit by serving so slow in the beginning. He missed a couple of returns while he was probably shocked that I served so slow.

Played a good return game, a couple of drop shots. I felt like he had quite a slow start, which he has sometimes, which I know. From that moment on from 3-0, 3-1 I feel like he didn't miss a ball either. From that moment he played really well. He served all the corners.

He's just way too good of an opponent to beat. He's already very tough to beat when you are healthy, when you are fit. So when you are injured, it doesn't get any easier.

Q. Just curious, what are your emotions? Obviously, you're playing great tennis, and I'm sure you had high hopes. How do you digest this?

TALLON GRIEKSPOOR: It's a tough one to take, especially I felt very, very good coming into the second week, like, physically-wise, even though I played two four-setters and one five-setter. I didn't feel too tired. I felt pretty good. I felt mentally pretty fresh, So that hurts.

If you arrive here with three five-setters, like over 12, 14 hours playing, it's different, but I felt pretty good playing a guy that I know how to play, that I got my chances against in the past.

But, like I said, he's incredibly tough to beat already when you are fit, so when you're not fit, it makes it very difficult, and it makes it almost impossible. It's tough to take.

I hope it's not going to be too bad with, yeah, my favorite weeks coming up on the grass, but time will tell. Like I said, it's too early now to say anything, but yeah, I mean, it doesn't look good at this point.

Q. Can you just tell me what your plans had been if you had not been injured? Would you have gone straight on to grass, or would you have planned a break anywhere?

TALLON GRIEKSPOOR: Yeah, I mean, I have a home tournament in one week, one of my favorite tournaments, a tournament that I won in the past. So, yeah, that would have been the plan.

For now I have to see the coming days what the results are going to be, how bad it is. From there I will take it from there.