Griekspoor stuns Zverev as Montreal’s Masters 1000 field is stripped of its seeds
Tallon Griekspoor’s upset win over top seed Alexander Zverev capped a day of carnage in Montreal, where the withdrawals of Sinner, Alcaraz, Djokovic and Auger-Aliassime, plus upset losses for Flavio Cobolli, Andrey Rublev and Taylor Fritz, left the ATP’s Top 5 completely absent from the Masters 1000 event’s round of 16.
Alexander Zverev, Montreal 2026 | © Zuma / PsNewz
Tallon Griekspoor upset top seed Alexander Zverev 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to reach the third round of the National Bank Open presented by Rogers, the eighth top-10 win of his career and only his fourth over a top seed at ATP level.
The Dutchman had lost his last four meetings with Zverev and trailed their head-to-head 3-9 entering the match. The German’s exit means he has now lost 50 percent of his opening matches (3 of 6) as the top seed at ATP Masters 1000 events, the highest rate of any player with multiple such appearances since the 12-tournament format began in 1990.
Griekspoor “very close to throwing the towel a couple of times”
Griekspoor described the win as one of the most meaningful of a difficult year. “This is probably one of the most special ones I’ve had,” he said. “I’ve been having a very tough season on court, which was not easy at many times – being very close to throwing the towel a couple of times. I’ve just been working harder and harder lately, and we’ve been reaching quite a good level in practice over the last couple of weeks. I felt like it was just about time.”
He credited his team for helping him through a tense moment on serve. “If you know the history I’ve had with him, I’ve thrown away a couple of opportunities against him before. I felt like the break point at 4-2, I played such a good point, and he played an unbelievable volley. Without the guys in my box, I probably would have lost this one. They kept me there, they stayed with me, and they helped me through.”
A rout of the ATP’s top five in Montreal
In this third set, Zverev held to open the set 1-0, and both players traded holds through 2-2. Griekspoor then produced the first break of the set to lead 3-2, and held again to stretch it to 4-2. Zverev pulled one back with a hold to 4-3, then broke Griekspoor to level at 4-4. But Griekspoor broke straight back to lead 5-4, and served out the match to close it 6-4 and complete the upset.
Zverev’s defeat completed a rout of the ATP’s top five in Montreal. Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Novak Djokovic had already withdrawn before the tournament, and Felix Auger-Aliassime pulled out of his second-round match against Titouan Droguet with a back injury. With Zverev now out too, no member of the Top 5 will be present in the round of 16 of a Masters 1000 event for only the second time since 1990, after Rome in 1991.
The seed carnage stretched well beyond the very top of the draw. No. 6 seed Flavio Cobolli, ranked No. 8 in the world, became the tournament’s first seeded casualty on Wednesday, beaten 7-6 (5), 7-6 (2) by Germany’s Yannick Hanfmann in two tight tiebreaks. It continued an erratic season for the Italian, who has paired a Roland-Garros final and a Wimbledon quarter-final with first-round exits at Halle and Umag, and has now lost his opening match at a tournament for the eighth time in 2026.
No. 10 seed Andrey Rublev also fell, beaten 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (5) by Juncheng Shang in an epic that turned on Shang saving five match points from 2-5 down in the deciding set. And No. 7 seed Taylor Fritz lost 7-5, 6-3 to Argentina’s Thiago Agustin Tirante just 48 hours after winning the Washington title, struggling physically through the second set.
Auger-Aliassime’s withdrawal was a particular blow for the tournament, with the Montreal-native and home favourite still searching for his first match win at the event since reaching the 2022 quarter-finals, following opening-round losses in each of the past three years.
