Gabriel Diallo will never forget his first ATP Tour win.
The 21-year-old Canadian stunned Washington champion Daniel Evans 7-6(4), 7-5 on home soil Tuesday to reach the second round of the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers.
The No. 141 player in the Pepperstone ATP Ranking entered the match with an 0-4 tour-level record. But he showed nerves of steel under pressure to close out the in-form Briton after two hours.
“Words cannot really describe how I feel right now. I hope that everyone in this planet can feel what I’m feeling right now, this level of happiness,” Diallo said in his on-court interview. “But obviously it doesn’t come without hard work behind the scenes. People don’t know us as tennis players, we travel, we lose first round, we go to crazy places losing first round, it’s so tough.
“But it shows that hard work eventually pays off and hopefully this can be the start of something.”
Evans trailed by a break on three separate occasions in the second set. After digging out of trouble when serving to stay in the match at 3-5 in the second set, Evans turned towards his team and let out a roar, pumping himself up to try to find energy resources to turn things around, while also making his opponent aware of the gravitas of the moment.
Diallo stumbled serving out the match, hitting a double fault long to relinquish his break. But the Canadian did not panic, taking advantage of unforced forehand errors from Evans in the next game before serving out the match at the second opportunity.
It marked Diallo’s second win of the year against Evans, whom he eliminated at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Surbiton on grass. What is Diallo’s secret against Evans?
“I have no idea. Luck, a lot of luck. And obviously playing [at] home in my home country, with my fans and my family, it helps a lot,” said Diallo, who will next play Australian Alex de Minaur. “But I got I got lucky twice and we’ll see the next time.”
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In other action Tuesday evening, Max Purcell spoiled Felix Auger-Aliassime’s 23rd birthday by defeating the home favourite 6-4, 6-4.
The Australian dropped just three points behind his first serve and did not face a break point to upset the 10th seed, who committed 29 unforced errors to Purcell’s 13 throughout the one-hour, 35-minute contest.
“These top guys haven’t played me much, so they don’t really know too many of my patterns yet,” Purcell said in his on-court interview. “I’m sure Felix will figure it out at some point and smoke me. But I think it’s a little bit of that unknown and I guess I have nothing to lose out here as well. In saying that, I still trust that my level is good enough to play with these big guys.”
Purcell displayed great variety, often implementing slice, to earn his maiden win at ATP Masters 1000 level and second victory against the Canadian, whom he also beat at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Purcell’s win on Tuesday against the World No. 12 marks the highest-ranked win of his career. The 25-year-old will next meet three-time major champion Andy Murray.
Auger-Aliassime fell to 0-3 on his birthday (2018, 2019). The Canadian, who was a quarter-finalist in Montreal last year, is on a five-match skid.