Diallo’s Magical Journey to New York | “I’m Leaving with No Regrets”

(New York) The stadium where Gabriel Diallo’s match was taking place was a testament to his unexpected rise at the US Open. After winning his first two Grand Slam tournaments on secondary courts, the 22-year-old Montrealer found himself in Louis Armstrong Stadium, the second-largest in Flushing Meadows, for his third-round match.

So he was probably just one triumph away from getting the chance to play in Arthur Ashe Stadium, the most imposing on the site, where the exploits that mark the history of tennis in New York are signed. But his magical journey in the American megacity stopped Saturday in front of the American Tommy Paul, 14^e top seed in the tournament, and some 14,000 noisy spectators.

After surprising the favourite by winning the first set in the tie-break, the 143^e World racket lost in third round in four sets, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (3), at the end of a duel lasting 3 hours 26 minutes which put an end to the two most thrilling weeks of his professional career.

“On paper, I wasn’t supposed to win,” Diallo told reporters after the match. “That doesn’t mean the loss doesn’t hurt. But I’m leaving here with no regrets. What’s hard to accept is when you have regrets after a match. That’s not the case today.”

In fact, nearly an hour and a half after leaving the court at the Louis Armstrong stadium, Gabriel Diallo seemed to be floating on a cloud. His obvious satisfaction was not only due to his success in qualifying and in the main draw of the tournament. It also stemmed from the tennis experience he had just had.

“This is the biggest stadium I’ve ever played in my life,” he said, his eyes shining. “And it was packed. And even though I was playing against an American, the crowd was still cheering me on. Of course, I had my group of friends and family who were very loud.”

After a lull in the third set following one in which Paul had adapted to his game and found his own bearings, Diallo made a strong comeback in the fourth, taking a quick 3-0 lead thanks to two breaks of serve.

A breakage duel

“I feel like I returned really well, but he controlled my serve really well,” Paul said after his win.

“I really didn’t expect that,” added the 27-year-old American, referring to the 14 breaks of serve that punctuated the match. “I know he has a very good serve and he’s very difficult to break, and I tried to change things up, give him different aspects. And I ended up returning very well, but he returned much better than I expected,” added the player who will face world number one Jannik Sinner of Italy in the next round.

The match could have gone to a fifth set if Diallo had not let slip three break points in the fourth, when Paul was serving at 5-5. After the match, he lamented his lack of opportunism and precision.

Diallo gave a positive assessment of these two weeks in New York which were marked by three victories in qualifying and two victories in the main draw, including one against the Frenchman Arthur Fils, 24^e seeded in New York. He was playing in his second Grand Slam tournament, having been eliminated in the first round of Roland Garros earlier this year.

“I have the potential to one day participate in these types of events, to be among the top 30 or 20 players,” he said at a press conference. “I still have work to do. My team and I will go back to the lab so that I can try to progress and improve in certain areas where I can make another leap forward.”

Ascent in the ranking

His New York performance should allow him to climb forty places in the world rankings. A jump that should allow him to participate in a greater number of major tournaments. But the amount of work to be done to climb even higher in the world rankings will not be insignificant.

“I think me and my team know the potential that I have, but we also know that it’s work and it’s not going to happen overnight,” he said. “What’s happened in the last two weeks is super special and it’s the result of the hard work that we’ve done together. But we’re going to have to keep working to improve, to clean up what could have maybe won me the game.”

“But I’ve had a lot of fun playing here over the last two weeks,” he said. “I hope I can do something special again next year.”

His new fans probably have the same hope.

Dabrowski and Routliffe win

Earlier in the day, Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand partner Erin Routliffe reached the round of 16 in the women’s doubles with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over the duo of American Catherine Harrison and Polish Alicja Rosolska.

Competition favourites Dabrowski and Routliffe needed just under 90 minutes to beat their rivals.

In the first set, Dabrowski and Routliffe were broken in the third and ninth games, but on each occasion Harrison and Rosolska immediately brought the set back to even serve.

Dabrowski and Routliffe, however, scored another break in the 11th.^e game, without conceding a single point. They followed up with another perfect game to close out the first set.

In the second set, Dabrowski and Routliffe took a comfortable 5-2 lead thanks to breaks in the third and seventh games. They recovered one of those breaks in the eighth game, but held on until the end.

In the next round, Dabrowski and Routliffe will face the tandem of Romanian Jaqueline Cristian and Italian Angelica Moratelli.

The Canadian Press