Tallon Griekspoor has won the European Open in Brussels. In the final the Dutchman beat Germany's Jan-Lennard Struff 4-6 6-3 6-4, turning around a lost first set and closing out in three a match that at the start seemed to belong to someone else. It is an ATP 250 title, the lowest level on the main tour, but it comes after months without big results.
The European indoor season is made of weeks like this: 28-player draws, fast courts, few points but plenty to prove. Players from 13 nations took part in Brussels, with four Belgians and four Americans among them. In the end two were left: Griekspoor, the winner, and Struff, who at 36 made it all the way to the last match.
The ranking numbers are worth a look. Griekspoor takes home 250 points and is No. 46 in the live standings with 1,135 points: Arthur Gea is ahead with 25 more, Quentin Halys behind with 8 fewer. Struff, the finalist, collects 165 points and sits at No. 50 with 1,094, with Denis Shapovalov just ahead, 11 points away, and Sebastian Baez behind by 50.
Griekspoor's path was anything but comfortable. In his first match he beat Max Schoenhaus 7-6(3) 6-7(5) 7-5, over 38 games: the longest match of the whole tournament. Then he got past Mariano Navone 7-6(4) 7-5, two more sets fought to the very end, on the way to the quarter-finals.
In the quarter-finals the obstacle was Jiri Lehecka. The Czech, a Brussels finalist in both 2024 and 2025, won the first set 6-4 but then dropped the other two 6-4 6-3. In the semi-final came Francisco Cerundolo, who took the first set 6-2: Griekspoor answered 6-3 and won the third in a tie-break, 7-6(4). Four matches out of five this week went to a deciding set.
That figure says a lot about how the Dutchman won. Over the week he dropped four sets, one against Schoenhaus, one against Lehecka, one against Cerundolo and one in the final, and each time he found a way back. His is a title built on resilience more than on a single decisive shot.
On the other side of the net Struff had a very solid tournament. He beat Marcos Giron in two tie-breaks (7-6(3) 7-6(3)), Gauthier Onclin 6-4 6-2 and Zizou Bergs 6-3 7-6(6). In the semi-final he then defeated Arthur Fils 6-4 6-7(7) 7-6(5): another match decided by the finest of margins, with the third set settled in a tie-break.
The final followed the same script. Struff took the first set 6-4, Griekspoor levelled in the second with a 6-3 and closed the third 6-4, avoiding the tie-break that had decided the German's semi-final. It was the Dutchman's fourth deciding-set match in five at the tournament.
Overall, the Brussels tournament produced 26 matches, 15 tie-breaks, 8 matches going to a deciding set and a single 6-0 set. No retirements, one walkover. For indoor tennis fans these numbers describe a balanced week in which almost nothing was settled quickly.
The roll of honour gains a new name. In 2025 Felix Auger Aliassime won, beating Lehecka 7-6(2) 6-7(6) 6-2; in 2024 it was Roberto Bautista Agut, again over Lehecka (7-5 6-1); in 2023 Alexander Bublik over Fils (6-4 6-4) and in 2022 Auger Aliassime over Sebastian Korda (6-3 6-4). Among the winners of the last five years, Griekspoor is the only Dutchman.
To understand the value of this result you have to look at the season. Griekspoor's 2025 record on the main tour is 29 wins and 23 losses, with one title. In 2026, before Brussels, his best results had been the round of 16 in Montreal, which earned him 100 points, while at Wimbledon and the US Open he had gone out in the first round.
The site's overall figure, which follows the Slams, Masters 1000, 500 and 250 events, shows 88 wins and 85 losses between 2021 and 2025, with three titles and four finals. Brussels is added to that tally. For a player who had not gone beyond the round of 16 at the biggest tournaments of 2026, it is an important signal.
Struff also takes something away from the Belgian week. His 2026 season has been marked by a peak at Wimbledon, where he reached the quarter-finals and earned 400 points, and by the best ranking in the site's history, No. 41 on 13 July. Compared with 27 July, however, he has lost 16 places: the Brussels final helps stop the slide.
In the previous weeks Struff had lost twice to Daniil Medvedev, in Beijing in the round of 16 (6-4 6-3) and in Shanghai in the second round (4-6 6-4 6-3), after winning the first set. With the Belgian week, his record over his last ten matches is six wins and four defeats.
And now? The tour does not stop. Griekspoor is in the Vienna draw, at the Erste Bank Open (ATP 500), where on Tuesday 27 October he opens against Brandon Nakashima and defends the 100 points from the quarter-finals he reached in 2025. Struff is in Basel, at the Swiss Indoors (ATP 500), and also on Tuesday faces Yannick Hanfmann.
The next two weeks will tell whether Brussels is the start of something or a happy interlude. For Griekspoor, meanwhile, this is a title worth more than 250 points: No. 46 in the live rankings and a week won match after match are the best way to arrive in Vienna.
Test yourself
3 questions on what you have just read.
1. What was the score of Griekspoor's win over Struff in the Brussels final?
2. How many ATP points did Griekspoor earn by winning the tournament?
3. Who did Griekspoor beat in the quarter-finals?