TORONTO — A straight-faced Gabriel Diallo slung his tennis bag over his shoulder as he walked throughout centre courtroom whereas he waved to a cheering crowd, then he put one hand over his coronary heart earlier than he exited Sobeys Stadium.
It was not the match the 23-year-old from Montreal had hoped for, not even shut.
“I simply really feel like I let lots of people down at present,” Diallo mentioned, following a straight-sets loss to world No. 4 Taylor Fritz within the third spherical of the Nationwide Financial institution Open offered by Rogers, a 6-4, 6-2 match that took simply an hour and quarter-hour.
“I didn’t actually have an opportunity on the market. Didn’t have an opportunity to get the group going,” Diallo mentioned. “It’s simply not an outing that you simply try for, truthfully, as a competitor. I sort of let him bully me across the courtroom lots at present, and it’s not a very good feeling.”
The world No. 36, Diallo was the final Canadian man standing within the males’s draw at his nationwide open, although he discovered it arduous to search out delight in that truth an hour after his third-round match ended.
“Taking part in like this, probably not,” he mentioned. “I feel it’s disappointing that we didn’t have a man carry out a bit of bit deeper within the occasion. For us to play right here is all the time a privilege and we all the time wish to do effectively right here. The truth that all of us misplaced early is disappointing. However I feel in losses we are able to be taught lots and hopefully come again subsequent 12 months stronger.”
Diallo, who has loved the very best season of his profession and has risen almost 50 spots in world rankings since January, performed stronger the final time he confronted Fritz. Friday was a rematch of the five-set heartbreaker he misplaced to the American in Spherical 2 at Wimbledon earlier this month, the Canadian’s first-ever match in opposition to a high 5 participant, which Diallo known as “arguably” the very best tennis he’d ever performed. In his second-ever match in opposition to a high 5 participant, once more in opposition to Fritz, Diallo didn’t have the stuff he displayed earlier this month on the Wimbledon grass to push the American to 5 units.
On Friday, Diallo opened with back-to-back double-faults, then put two forehands effectively out, handing Fritz an early break.
“It helps lots, you understand, he got here out and performed a free first recreation,” Fritz mentioned. “You begin up a break, and I did a very good job of simply holding my serve and never letting him again into the set.”
Diallo was undone by unforced errors. He did handle to get his serve cooking — he held his third service recreation with back-to-back aces, hitting upwards of 230 km/h, and on the ultimate level, he drilled a crosscourt forehand winner and yelled: “Come on!” Diallo’s serve-and-volley recreation labored effectively at instances, and when he started the second set on serve, he didn’t quit a single level.
The largely full crowd had the “Let’s go Dia-llo!” cheers going, nevertheless it wasn’t the environment Fritz was anticipating, taking part in a hometown participant. “I believed the group was very delicate for me taking part in — effectively, delicate perhaps just isn’t proper — they had been simply very good for me taking part in the final participant within the match from Canada,” the American mentioned.
“I believed it was going to be a bit of bit extra hostile, however I suppose everybody’s simply so good,” Fritz added, with amusing.
It was mighty quiet within the stadium on the finish of the third recreation within the second set. Diallo was serving and up 40-0, and Fritz managed to return again and earn his second break of the match. “Horrendous job on my finish,” Diallo mentioned. “It was a game-changer. Now he’s up a set and a break, he was serving very well, so the match was sort of performed there.”
Later within the set, the Canadian double-faulted twice — he had six double-faults in all — to assist Fritz make good on one other break level, ending the match in a rush.
“Very, very disappointing,” Diallo mentioned. “It’s not one of many outings that you simply hope for if you’re going into matchups like this, particularly in opposition to a participant like Taylor. You’ve acquired to be tremendous sharp, and at present I wasn’t, in order that’s why the rating turned out this manner.”
When he walked out to centre courtroom on Friday evening earlier than his match, Diallo says he was “amped up, fired up.”
He left a bit of greater than an hour later, feeling fairly the other.
