Tallon Griekspoor injured an abdominal muscle during warm-up on Monday. After a scan, the Dutchman decided to enter the court, but after falling behind 1-0 against Alexander Zverev, he announced that he could not continue. “It didn’t work anymore.”
“It shot into my abdominal muscle while serving,” says Griekspoor shortly after his retirement at Roland Garros. “It didn’t feel like it should.”
Griekspoor and his team immediately decided to have a scan done. “But there was nothing to see. Unfortunately, it was too early to determine anything. It takes about six to eight hours before you can see anything,” explains the North Hollander. “We will investigate it further in the Netherlands tomorrow.”
Against his better judgement, Griekspoor entered the court around 1:00 PM. “If there had been a tear, I wouldn’t have done it,” he continues. “But from moment one, I couldn’t serve harder than 180 kilometers per hour. That quickly dropped to 160 and 150 kilometers per hour after the first few games.”
Griekspoor asked the umpire for a medical time-out, but that was against his better judgement. “It was so stuck. It didn’t work anymore. I knew then that I could better stop the match,” says Griekspoor, who hopes to be fit in time for the grass season.
“You do it all for this, and for this to happen to you is bitter,” Griekspoor concludes, visibly disappointed. “It should have been the most beautiful match of my career. I am sure I will learn from this. But for now it is disappointing, cry it out and then we have to move on.”