Fresh off a historic first round win at the National Bank Open just one week ago, Montreal native Gabriel Diallo continues his ascension in the tennis world at the Winnipeg National Bank Challenger tournament this week at the brand new Tennis Manitoba Hub in West St. Paul.
Diallo won his first match at the Winnipeg tournament against Frenchman Enzo Couacaud by a score of 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 on Tuesday morning. He moves on to the round of 16 where he will face Mattia Bellucci at 6 p.m. on Wednesday night.
Diallo turned pro at the beginning of 2023 and has quickly shot up the ATP world rankings. His ranking at the beginning of the year was 227, he has moved up nearly 100 spots since then and currently ranking 134th. The 21-year-old is the third ranked Canadian in the world trailing only Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov who sit at 14, and 22, respectively.
Mike Thiessen / Winnipeg Free Press
Montréal’s Gabriel Diallo turned pro at the beginning of 2023 and has quickly shot up the ATP world rankings.
The highlight of Diallo’s young pro career came on August 8 in Toronto, when the 21-year-old faced 28th ranked Daniel Evans in the first round of the National Bank Open. The Canadian shocked everyone, defeating Evans 7-6, 7-5 on home soil in front of a spirited crowd.
Diallo stands at a towering 6-8 with long arms and at times it seems like those arms can get to any ball no matter where it is on the court. He played for the University of Kentucky Wildcats tennis team for three seasons, and joked that he and his teammate and fellow Montrealer, Alexandre Leblanc, almost tried to pitch themselves as basketball prospects to the legendary Kentucky men’s basketball coach John Calipari.
“I had a teammate named Alex (Leblanc) who is 6-5, and we were maybe flirting with the idea of going up to Coach Calipari and asking if he has two more spots on his roster… We can move well, stretch the floor a little bit, catch and shoot,” said Diallo with a laugh.
While his measurables would certainly be useful in hoops, the 6-8 frame helps give Diallo a devastating serve that came up huge in his first round win over Couacaud on Tuesday morning.
The opening match was no cake walk for Diallo. Couacaud won the first set and had two opportunities to break Diallo early in the second set. After each player held serve for the first two service games of the second set, Couacoud went up 40-15, giving him two chances to go up a break on the Canadian. Despite his youth, Diallo settled in and ripped a couple powerful serves, one for an ace and another one that his opponent barely managed to get a racket on. Diallo went on to hold serve and did not lose a service game the rest of the way.
Diallo’s serve was certainly a weapon for him throughout the match, but he says it’s the other parts of his game that have helped him be successful over his last few outings.
“As a tall guy you always want to rely on your weapon(serving),… I think my game is getting more complete in comparison to where I was a year ago. I can do more than just serve and that actually takes pressure off of my serve,… I have more tricks up my sleeve.”
This is the second week in a row that Diallo has played in Canada, and it is an experience that he always cherishes.
“I don’t think any Canadian takes it for granted, we don’t have a lot of tournaments in Canada… It means alot to us that the crowd is able to come and watch us play.”
Diallo is the only Canuck to make it through the first round, and he will have his work cut out for him the rest of the way with a number of top players remaining such as Benjamin Bonzi and Liam Broady who both rank in the top 125 in the world. These top seeded players are far from invincible as evidenced by former top 10 ranked David Goffin losing in the first round to Leandro Riedi.
Tournament director Marc Arndt says that the list of competitors gets better each year and this year is no exception.
“Each year it gets better, last year was fantastic with Vasek Pospisil here but this year with (David) Goffin and (Liam) Brody,… it’s fantastic,” said Arndt.
The Winnipeg National Bank Challenger tournament action continues the rest of the week with the final set for Saturday, August 19.
