Roller coaster lovers were served their fill this weekend at the IGA stadium. The problem is that the IGA stadium is not an amusement park but a sports complex dedicated to tennis. And in tennis, roller coaster rides, in the long run, rarely bring happiness and smiles.
One of those rare occasions happened over the weekend, during Gabriel Diallo’s two outings in the Davis Cup qualifying match between Canada and South Korea.
Diallo played two singles matches and won both, ensuring Canada qualified, for a fifth consecutive year, for the group stage of the Davis Cup Finals to be held in September.
Diallo set the tone by winning the first match of the competition against Kwon Soon-woo in two sets on Friday. The next day, he sealed the fate of the South Koreans by defeating Hong Seong-chan in three sets.
At the age of 22 and six feet eight inches tall, the Montrealer was undoubtedly the most intriguing Canadian color wearer this weekend. Especially since Quebec tennis fans rarely have the opportunity to see him in action.
What they saw, Friday and Saturday, was a player with undeniable talent. But also a talent that he will need to polish if he wants to make progress in the world rankings.
Holder of 132e rank earlier this week, Diallo showed he possesses major league service. In his two matches this weekend, he had 20 aces and committed only three double faults. His best serve of the weekend was clocked at 226 km/h and his first balls averaged around 200 km/h.
His mobility was impressive and he was seen many times going to the net to support his powerful serve slaps, finishing many points with incisive and precise volleys.
But it was when returning serves, or during long rallies, that the level of his game greatly decreased. To the point of completing the five rounds he played with 111 unforced errors and only 47 winning shots.
Some of his mistakes were downright disconcerting, so easy were the shots he attempted.
If there was any source of comfort for Diallo and for Frank Dancevic, the captain of the Canadian team, it was the way the Montrealer pulled himself together in the deciding set against Hong on Saturday.
He managed to radically reduce his number of unforced errors, which he limited to 11 while hitting eight winners.
“He did an incredible job getting back into the match and getting his game back,” Dancevic analyzed when talking about Diallo’s performance in the third set on Saturday.
” It’s impressive. It’s not always easy to do this. »
The fact remains that for a captain, it is never easy to sit on the sidelines and see one of his protégés experience so many ups and downs in such a short time.
“It’s emotional, that’s for sure. But I’ve seen him play before, a lot of times and I know how he can play when he plays well,” Dancevic said.
“I thought he felt the ball this week. This was not the case of a player who was looking for his game and not feeling the ball. I had a lot of confidence that even in the third set, if he imposes his game, if he plays the way he knows how to play, he would win the match. »