Canada's Diallo reaches third round of NBO with straight sets victory

TORONTO — Gabriel Diallo rifled a backhand winner down the line to go up 1-0 in his second set tiebreaker, then the Canadian ran up the court a little way, pumping his racquet as the crowd cheered.

After he won the set and match in the opener of his national tournament, the 23-year-old from Montreal fired out a hearty fist pump and yelled: “Let’s gooooo!”

On Wednesday afternoon on Sobey Stadium’s centre court, Diallo earned a 6-3, 7-6 (5) win over Italian wild card Matteo Gigante to advance to the third round of the National Bank Open Presented By Rogers, adding a big win at home to what has been a spectacular season for the Canadian.

“Very happy that I got through it,” a grinning Diallo said when it was over, sporting a fresh white Adidas t-shirt and black shorts, with two gold chains dangling from his neck. “It was looking like we were maybe heading to a third set, but happy that I got to squeeze it into two sets. And happy with the way that I competed.”

The world No. 36 is the lone Canadian man still standing in the singles draw of this ATP 1000 event. Felix Auger-Aliassime, Canada’s highest-ranked man at No. 28, was upset later Wednesday, while Denis Shapovalov, the world No. 29, suffered the same fate a night earlier.

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But Wednesday afternoon, the Toronto crowd was treated to a hometown player who showed his mettle, suffering an early break in the second set after a rain delay, but clawing his way back to win it.

The tournament’s 27th seed, Diallo broke Gigante as early as he could, and pumped his fist as he went up 2-0 in the first set. There was a short rain delay when Diallo was up 5-3 in that first set (he’s six-foot-eight, and took the umbrella from the volunteer who was trying to keep it over his head as he walked off the court, because the kid’s arms weren’t long enough.) Diallo returned once the rain stopped and won his service game handily to take the first set.

But the second required more work from Diallo, who sent a forehand into the net on break point, then threw his arms in the air and looked at his coach in the stands.

“Tennis, sometimes it's pretty crazy, the momentum switch that you see throughout a match. Things were looking really good, especially after the first set. Early in the second I had a lot of chances to go up a break, didn't get them, played a poor game to lose my serve,” Diallo said. “You try to stay calm, try to stay composed, try to fix the little damages quickly, stay present in the moment.”

Gigante was up 5-2 in the second set, and the world No. 125 skipped onto the court following the break, while Diallo received cheers of encouragement from the fans: “Let’s go Diallo!” He followed up a double-fault with a 228-km/h ace that got fans cheering again, then staved off a break point and fired another ace to take the game. “Come on!” Diallo yelled. It was one of eight aces he’d register.

Diallo earned three break points on Gigante’s next service game, but couldn’t make good on the first two, and had his hands on his hips after sending a forehand way long. But Diallo made good on that third one with a backhand volley winner, and then yelled "Yeah!” and pumped both fists and pointed to a corner of the stadium.

He didn’t give up a single point on his next service game. In the tiebreaker, he sent a couple of forehands into the net to give Gigante the 4-2 lead, but got himself right back in it in large part thanks to his monster serve, earning match point.

Gigante went on to double-fault, then tossed his racquet on the court in frustration. It was game over.

Diallo won his first ATP match at his home tournament two years ago, and at this time last year he was ranked 165th in the world. Since then, he’s won matches at three Grand Slams, made a run through qualifiers to the quarter-finals at the ATP 1000 event in Madrid, and just last month he won his first title at an ATP 250 event.

Now he’s into the third round at home.

“The tables have turned a little bit,” Diallo said. “Now I'm expected to perform well here.”

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