TORONTO \u2014 The afternoon before the biggest match of his career on home soil, Gabriel Diallo had an hour-long practice that more than 50 fans watched, many of them holding giant tennis balls and hats for him to sign, others recording his monster serve on cellphones they later used to take selfies with a grinning Diallo.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can beat him tomorrow!\u201d one fan yelled, referring to Diallo\u2019s upcoming third-round tilt against American Taylor Fritz, the world No. 4. Diallo glanced at the fan before returning to the baseline to pummel another ball.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old from Montreal is the lone Canadian man standing in the singles draw of the National Bank Open presented by Rogers, and on Friday he\u2019s set to play Fritz for the second time in his career. It\u2019s not just a rematch of the five-set heartbreaker Diallo lost to Fritz at Wimbledon earlier this month, it\u2019s also just Diallo\u2019s second match ever against a Top-5 player since he began his meteoric rise in the sport in the last calendar year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Diallo\u2019s mom and dad will be in the crowd Friday night, plus a bunch of buddies and family friends \u2014 \u201cbasically everyone,\u201d he said, sweat-soaked while leaving the practice court, once he\u2019d smiled for a final selfie and signed his last autograph.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The world No. 36, Diallo isn\u2019t used to so many fans watching him train, or being seeded 27th and earning a bye to the second round the way he did here. But the only Canadian to win his first singles match at the NBO is enjoying the support that comes with being a hometown player, and he\u2019s excited for what will be his first-ever centre court night match at home.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think all of us Canadians are very grateful and happy to play here, even small things like practices,\u201d Diallo said as he made his way through the crowd, with a lot of fans looking in his direction \u2014 at six-foot-eight and carrying a giant red Wilson tennis bag, he stands out.<\/p>\n
Later Thursday, Diallo and fellow Canadian Alexis Galarneau lost in their opening doubles match, and after that Diallo has 24 hours of rest before going toe to toe against Fritz, the tournament\u2019s No. 2 seed, at 7 p.m. ET on Friday. It\u2019s a rematch of Round 2 at Wimbledon, where the Canadian produced what he said was \u201carguably\u201d the best match of his life when he took the American to five sets.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
After taking out Diallo, the 27-year-old Fritz made a run to Wimbledon\u2019s semifinal. He cracked the U.S. Open final and the ATP finals last year, and his 10 ATP titles include one Masters 1000 championship win, in 2022 at Indian Wells.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m expecting a good match from his part \u2014 I mean, he\u2019s a very consistent player,\u201d Diallo said of Fritz. \u201cWe had a great match at Wimbledon, so I\u2019m looking forward to try and replicate that kind of level and hopefully give myself some chances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Diallo can give himself even better chances against the world No. 4 this time. His debut against Fritz was a five-setter on grass, and both the duration and surface are still relatively new to the Canadian. Friday will mark their first meeting on Diallo\u2019s favourite surface, and in the best-of-three format he\u2019s most accustomed to.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThese courts are really fast,\u201d said Diallo\u2019s coach, Martin Laurendeau, who communicates with his player during training in a hybrid of French and English. \u201cHe\u2019s grown up on fast courts and so he favours these conditions\u2026 Fast balls and fast courts. Those are the best conditions of play for him, so he really looks forward to whoever\u2019s out there under those conditions. He really believes in himself more than anywhere else.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Both Diallo and Fritz are known for big serves \u2014 their first meeting featured a whopping 53 aces \u2014 and powerful games overall.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be about being in sprint mode and just being able to put together a combination of shots quickly and efficiently, over and over again,\u201d Laurendeau said. \u201cThat\u2019s the kind of approach Gabe\u2019s going to need. I think if he reproduces the same level as Wimbledon, he\u2019s in there. And then you never know. That match came down to a few points, and probably this match will, too.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Diallo says winning two sets off Fritz at Wimbledon did more for his confidence than any other accomplishment he\u2019s pulled off this season, which includes wins at all three Grand Slams to date, and taking home his first ATP 250 title.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLosing a tough match like that against a player like him, for where I am in my career, it\u2019s super beneficial. It was great to go back and watch some tape and learn a lot from what I did well in the match and things that I could have improved,\u201d Diallo said. \u201cHopefully I can tweak some things and put on a good match again.\u201d<\/p>\n
He points to aggressive play as one key. \u201cI took him to five sets by backing myself from the first point to the last point, so I\u2019m going to replicate more or less the same thing, and I look forward to it,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
And if Diallo\u2019s down, don\u2019t count him out. His first match here against wild card Matteo Gigante saw him down a break in the second set, then battle back to force a tiebreak that he trailed 2-4 before an eventual 6-3, 7-6 (5) victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of times this year he was down in a set, or down match points or it looked like it was not going to be his day, but he managed to get a lot of wins by competing really well,\u201d Laurendeau said. \u201cThat\u2019s been his trademark.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
He applauds Diallo for his even keel approach to the game, and for taking accountability when things don\u2019t go his way. That outlook, plus Diallo\u2019s physical skill, is what stands out most to the long-time coach.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cHis game is very disruptive. His identity is to play big, to serve big and to use his power,” Landereau said. “He\u2019s got long levers and when he connects, they\u2019re powerful shots. He\u2019s physically imposing, he\u2019s a great athlete, and his goal is not to get into these arm wrestles, it\u2019s about him disrupting the opponent, not giving rhythm and trying to dictate and trying to play under four or five shots.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis game, when he\u2019s on, he doesn\u2019t give the opponents time to really get into the match, and that irritates them and throws them off.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
That\u2019s tougher to do against an opponent like Fritz, but earning more opportunities against top players is only going to help Diallo learn to play his best against the best. \u201cThe more he plays those guys, the more he\u2019ll find some openings and the better his chances of taking them down,\u201d Laurendeau said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Canada\u2019s top two players were already taken down in this tournament on the men\u2019s side, with both Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov upset in their opening matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Diallo wishes it was different, because he knows it\u2019s good for the NBO to have a lot of Canadians competing at home, and he likes to see his fellow countrymen winning.<\/p>\n
\u201cThings have turned out the way they are,\u201d Diallo said. \u201cBut I\u2019ll try my hardest to carry the flag behind me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 The afternoon before the biggest match of his career on home soil, Gabriel Diallo had an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[442],"tags":[49,48,82,593],"class_list":{"0":"post-38540","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-tennis"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}