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There are phenoms in men’s tennis – we saw the two biggest in the Roland Garros singles final in 22-year-old Carlos Alcaraz and 23-year-old Jannik Sinner, the top two players in the world.
And then there are players like Canadian Gabriel Diallo.
Diallo, a month younger than Sinner and 18 months older than Alcaraz, has been on his own timetable as a relatively late bloomer on the ATP Tour.
But on Sunday, he knocked a big item off his bucket list: a maiden ATP Tour singles title.
Unseeded at the Libéma Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, Diallo defeated fellow unseeded player Zizou Bergs of Belgium 7-5, 7-6 (8) to reach that first big career goal.
“I didn’t serve great, but I didn’t serve that bad. I played pretty well behind my serve. I think saving those break points in the first set the way I did, playing really aggressive, set the tone for the rest of the match,” Diallo said, in post-match quotes supplied by the ATP Tour.
“I managed to snatch the first set, and then the second set, honestly, it could have gone either way. As we saw, he was serving at 6-4 (in the second-set tiebreak), so I was bracing myself to maybe go to three sets. But on grass, everything can go so fast. You can have a bad bounce, you can have a moment where you’re not very sharp behind your serve, and you can lose the advantage,” he added. “I try to stay positive and control what I can control. It was tricky. It was a little bit windy, and we were both, I think, a little bit nervous because we were both playing for our first title. I’m really happy with the way I handled it.”
With this victory, Diallo finds himself in the top 50 for the first time in his career, checking in at No. 44 in the rankings on Monday.
“It’s one thing to be top 50, but it’s another thing to finish the year top 50 with the points that you have to defend eventually, which I’m aware of,” he said. “We’re never scared, like I said, to dream big. We’re a little over or not even halfway through the year, so still a lot of tennis left to play.” So yeah, really excited now.”
Diallo’s opponent, who also was looking for his first career ATP Tour title, also squeezes back into the top 50 and matches his career high of No. 49.
The two go back a long way, and had tremendous things to say about each other during the trophy ceremony speeches.
As it happens, they will team up for doubles at Wimbledon.
Diallo was probably always the tallest, but he was never the best.
As a junior, he spent most of his adolescence battling injuries and growing pains. And Tennis Canada more or less pulled the plug in backing him – quite the call when you have a kid who’s growing into 6-foot-8, which doesn’t come around every week.
Félix Auger-Aliassime’s father Sam, a tennis coach in Quebec City, took him on and Diallo moved there to train at his academy.
Diallo was far too raw, and didn’t have nearly the resumé, to think about going pro after the juniors.
His “peak” in the junior ITF rankings came in his final year – at No. 581. He played mostly the lowest-level ITF tournaments (Grades 4 and 5 at the time), never won one, and never beat a player whose name you would remotely recognize.
It’s not that unusual for kids who grow to that height to not make a big mark in the juniors; Milos Raonic and Vasek Pospisil, who ended up 6-foot-5, did better than Diallo but didn’t roar through the juniors, either. It takes time to get those big bodies sorted and coordinated.
But it was the decision to play college tennis at the University of Kentucky that flipped the switch.
Diallo raced up the ladder as he physically and mentally matured. It’s an environment conducive to nurturing with so many fellow Canadians in the fold, and a French head coach in Cédrick Kaufmann who brings a professional patina to the operation.
And slowly but surely, he climbed the ranks as a pro as Tennis Canada rediscovered him, and assigned former Davis Cup captain Martin Laurendeau to guide his journey.
Diallo took his lumps a year ago as he played a full clay-court season. He played six events between Challengers and ATP events. He did this same this year and by Madrid – with Diallo-friendly conditions in the altitude – it began paying off.
He got into the Madrid main draw as a lucky loser and went through Bergs in the first round, Cameron Norrie and Grigor Dimitrov before falling to Lorenzo Musetti.
And in his Roland Garros main-draw debut, faced with tough clay-counter Francisco Cerundolo in the first round, he pulled off an impressive first-round win.
Notably, Diallo’s combination of a big kick serve and a sneak volley attack paid dividends. It’s not a play he had in his toolkit a year ago.
“When (Laurendeau) gives me guidance, things that can help me progress in my game, I’m never scared to try it in the match. You can see it as a risk. But I see it as an opportunity to get better,” he said in Paris. “Historically, my progression has always been gradual, so why stop now.?The ranking rises, the game improves, too. Working hard physically, and my movement is improving as well.”
The play should pay dividends on the grass as well.
“My serve bounces high because of my height. It’s a rather particular bounce. A lot of action on my serve. Generally the opponents like to stay back to give themselves time, so sometimes I like to come intercept the ball, depending on the conditions,” he said. “I think it’s the right play regardless of surface, especially for good servers. It also gives the returner a different look, because he doesn’t know quite to expect.
“It’s a work in progress, but a lot of work in training, to the point of executing it in matches. Some matches I did it, and it was catastrophic. But your experience baggage grows, and you know when to play those cards,” he added. “It’s still not perfect, but it’s getting there.”
Diallo was one of the last players to squeeze directly into the main draw at Queen’s Club. Which was a fortunate thing, because he was too busy winning in the Netherlands to be able to play the qualifying this weekend.
He drew British wild card Billy Harris in the first round, and could play Alex de Minaur in he second round.
And then, Wimbledon.
This will be his main-draw debut, after losing in the second round of qualifying each of the last two years.
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