Tallon Greekpoor was eliminated in the first round of Roland Garros. The 29-year-old Dutch tennis player defeated the unseeded Matteo Arnaldi: 7-6 (9), 3-6, 6-7 (6), 4-6. In the third set he missed four set points in a row.

Greek track reached the fourth round at Roland Garros last year. He had to give up against the German Alexander Zverev. However, this year he has had a difficult season, partly due to a hamstring injury.

Today also Greekpoor (ATP-33) seemed to be suffering from an injury, this time to his knee. Arnaldi easily managed to win his own serve at 5-4 in the first set, against a tight-legged Greek track.

Afterwards, Greekpoor said he didn’t feel well at the end of the second set. During the break he “felt over his neck a few times”, but Greek Spoor does not know whether it was due to the temperature or because he had eaten something wrong.

“I recovered quite well after that and got back into it in the third set,” says Greekpoor. “In the end I had a lot of chances, but in the tiebreak I missed two forehands and made a double fault. That is unacceptable, I am shooting myself in the fingers.”

Greek Spoor does not want to blame its defeat on the high temperatures. “You can’t always prepare for these kinds of circumstances, it happens to you. You have to compete for four hours, but the opponent is also affected by it.”

The tennis players played evenly in their first meeting. Arnaldi may not be high on the world rankings (ATP-104), but two years ago he was number 30 in the world and also reached the fourth round at the Paris Grand Slam tournament.

A very exciting tiebreak had to decide the first set. The 25-year-old Italian kept the pressure on, but Fransepoor wiped away three set points and came back from a 6-3 deficit, partly thanks to two double errors by Arnaldi: 11-9.

This is how Greek Spoor escaped, but it didn’t work in the second set. With a few unfortunate blows he let the Italian come back. In the third set the decision again only came in the tiebreak. Greekpoor took a 6-2 lead, but was unable to get the 2-1 score over the line. Arnaldi came back strongly and won six points in a row: 6-8.

After that, Arnaldi remained almost clear and a second set point was enough for the victory. In the second round, the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas is his opponent.