Photo : Martin Sidorjak
Gabriel Diallo’s career-best run at the US Open came to an end on Saturday in the third round at the hands of No. 14 seed Tommy Paul in four sets.
Having come through qualifying and scoring two impressive four-set victories for his first two main draw wins at a major, Diallo went toe-to-toe with the American who is ranked 129 spots above him for three hours and 26 minutes but struggled to hold onto his serve, which ultimately cost him in a 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-1, 7-6(3) defeat.
With the loss, there are no Canadians left in singles at the 2024 US Open.
Serve struggles were a problem for Diallo, as he was broken nine times on 20 break points and won just 30 per cent of his second serve points. Neither man was particularly clean as they combined for 117 unforced errors with both having significantly more errors than winners, 70 to 29 for the Canadian and 47 to 36 for Paul.
Considering the offensive capabilities of both men, they each had to battle to hang on to their serves in the opening set. Diallo faced break points in all but his first service game and while he saved the first six, mostly with some big hitting, he finally cracked at 3-3 when Paul managed to fire a forehand passing shot crosscourt for a winner.
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That kicked off a run of six consecutive breaks as both men struggled to keep the ball in play while serving. Twice Paul broke to set himself up to serve for the set but both times he played poor games, including a double fault to let Diallo back to 5-5 and four unforced errors to drop serve in the 12th game.
Paul again had the match on his racquet serving at 5-4 in the tiebreak, having twice fought back from a minibreak down, but some brilliant attacking tennis from Diallo got it back to 5-5 and then a wild forehand from the American gave the qualifier a set point on his own serve. Diallo made no mistake, launching a missile out wide to take the opening set.
Whatever problems Paul had been struggling with in the first set, he solved them quickly to start the second as he broke for a 2-0 lead. He hung on to that lone break to level the match and then raced out to a 4-0 lead to start the third, breaking for a third time in that set in the final game to take a 2-1 lead.
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Diallo was not going away quietly as Paul reverted to his first-set struggles in the fourth. The forehand vanished on the American, missing on break points in the first and third game as the qualifier went up a double break.
At 3-0, 40-15, Diallo was a point away on serve from taking a stranglehold on the fourth set. But he proceeded to lose four points in a row to give the first break back. As the set went along, Paul started to refind his rhythm and broke to love to level the set at 4-4.
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Despite seeing his lead slip away, Diallo kept pressing. At 5-5, he had three break points on the Paul serve but was unable to convert. In the tiebreak, inability to win on his own serve bit the Canadian as he lost his last four points on serve in the match, including match point as Paul fired a forehand winner down the line.
Gabriela Dabrowski is the only Canadian still competing at the US Open. She and partner Erin Routliffe are the top seeds and defending champions in the women’s doubles and are through to the third round after a win over Catherine Harrison and Alicija Rosolska on Saturday.
