‘S-HERTOGENBOSCH, Netherlands — Canadian sensation Gabriel Diallo, the reigning champion, faced a tough defeat in his first match of the Libema Open grass-court tournament on Tuesday, as he was edged out by France’s Adrian Mannarino with a score of 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
Diallo unleashed seven aces and successfully secured 73 percent of his first-serve points, yet Mannarino proved to be resilient, converting four out of nine break-point opportunities during the two-hour and thirty-minute contest.
Following this match, Diallo’s season record now stands at 6-13, and he is set to tumble 30 spots to No. 84 in the ATP live rankings after his unsuccessful title defense.
However, the Montreal native is still in the mix for the doubles title, as he and Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz powered through to the quarterfinals with a thrilling 3-6, 6-4, 14-12 victory against India’s Yuki Bhambri and Australia’s Matthew Ebden.
In another exciting development, an all-Canadian duo consisting of Felix Auger-Aliassime from Montreal and Denis Shapovalov from Richmond Hill, Ont., was set to kick off their doubles journey later on Tuesday against the Czech Republic’s Petr Nouza and Austria’s Niki Oberleitner.
Top seed Auger-Aliassime is gearing up for his first singles encounter on Wednesday, facing off against the victor of Tuesday’s match between Hurkacz and Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics.
On another note, Canada’s Alexis Galarneau was unable to advance, falling short against German veteran Jan-Lennard Struff with a scoreline of 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3 in the opening round of the Stuttgart Open.
Galarneau earned his spot in the grass-court tournament after a commendable performance over the weekend, winning two qualifying matches.
