BRUSSELS — Tallon Griekspoor recovered from 3-5 down in the deciding set to beat No. 3 seed Francisco Cerundolo 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (4) on Saturday and reach the final of the BNP Paribas Fortis European Open, the Brussels ATP 250 and the first indoor final of his career.
Cerundolo dominated the opening set and stood two games from victory at 5-3 in the third, but could not close it out. Griekspoor levelled at 5-5, forced a tie-break and took it 7-4 to level their head-to-head at 1-1 after Cerundolo had won their only previous meeting 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 at the Miami Masters 1000 in 2022.
The final is the seventh of Griekspoor's career, his second of the season and his first indoors. The 30-year-old, ranked No. 60, is the first Dutchman to reach a final at the event and the first Dutchman to reach an ATP Tour final on indoor hard courts since Robin Haase in Vienna in 2013. His only other final this year, in Dubai in February, ended without a ball being hit when he gave Daniil Medvedev a walkover.
Griekspoor had to work for every win this week, beating German wildcard Max Schoenhaus 7-6 (3), 6-7 (5), 7-5 in the first round and No. 8 seed Mariano Navone 7-6 (4), 7-5 in the second before ousting No. 2 seed Jiri Lehecka 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 in the quarter-finals; Lehecka had reached the final here in each of the past two years. For Cerundolo, the 28-year-old world No. 21, it was a third defeat in three hard-court semi-finals and he missed out on a third final of the season after Buenos Aires and Queen's Club.
A victory would have made Cerundolo only the sixth Argentine man in the Open Era to reach finals on clay, grass and hard courts. He had beaten American lucky loser Martin Damm 6-4, 7-6 (4) and French qualifier Clement Chidekh 6-2, 6-4 to reach the last four and will still finish the week inside the top 20. Griekspoor will face top seed Arthur Fils or Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff in Sunday's final, with Fils leading their head-to-head 3-1 and Griekspoor unbeaten 3-0 against Struff.