Montreal’s Gabriel Diallo lost in three sets 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-7 (5) to Emilio Gomez of Ecuador in a first round match of the tennis tournament Dallas.
Diallo, a 2.01m giant aged just 21, lost despite collecting 18 aces against only two double faults. He also hit 76% of his first serve points and won 74% of the points after lodging his first serve.
Admitted to the main draw as a lucky loser, Diallo, ranked 211e in the world, faced only three break points, but Gomez converted two.
Gomez’s first break came in the fifth game of the opening set and the Ecuadorian was able to protect him to win the first set.
Gomez had his second break in the third game of the second set, which allowed him to take a 2-1 lead. Diallo scored his only break in the duel in the 10e game, to bring the score to 5-5.
During the tiebreaker of the second set, Diallo needed only one mini-break, during the second point, to force the holding of a decisive set.
During this third set, Diallo and Gomez jealously protected their service, without conceding the slightest chance of breakage.
During the decisive tiebreaker, Diallo scored a mini-break from the first point but Gomez gave him the change of his coin from the next point. Gomez added a second mini-break to take a 6-4 lead en route to victory.
Later Wednesday, Ontarian Denis Shapovalov, 3e seeded and 27e world player, will face the Chinese Wu Yibing, 97e in the world in a second-round duel.