Gabriel Diallo’s reprieve in Indian Wells was short-lived as he was knocked out in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open on Friday night by 20th seed Arthur Fils of France in straight sets.
The Canadian had taken advantage of getting into the main draw as a lucky loser, winning his first-round match on Thursday. But he was overpowered in the second round by Fils on Friday, who avenged his loss to Diallo at the US Open with a 6-2, 6-2 win.
Fils picked apart Diallo’s serve in the match, winning 53 per cent of the Canadian’s first serve points and 61 per cent of seconds. The Montrealer did not do himself many favours, committing 28 unforced errors while only striking eight winners.
The match got off to a rough start for the Canadian. From deuce in his opening service game, Diallo lost the next 14 points in a row. That included two breaks, including being broken to love in his second service game where he committed three straight unforced errors before double-faulting. Even when he snapped the run in his third service game, he had to save a pair of break points before finally getting on the board at 1-4.
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That hold briefly gave the Canadian some life. In the following game, Fils struggled and gifted one of the breaks back, but Diallo could not take advantage. A missed backhand in the following game gave Fils a double break point opening and he fired a backhand passing shot to reclaim the double break lead which he did not relinquish.
Diallo started the second set stronger with a pair of holds, but errors eventually came back to haunt him. At 2-2, a missed forehand put the Canadian down break point and he netted a backhand to surrender the advantage.
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It was one-way traffic from there. The next time Diallo stepped up to the line, he netted a volley to go down 15-40 and Fils drew an error with some impressive ball placement to move ahead 5-2 before serving out the match after just 67 minutes.
Félix Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov, and Leylah Annie Fernandez all play their opening matches on Saturday. The three Canadians are all on Court 6, with Auger-Aliassime kicking off the action at 11 am local, 2 am EST, followed by Shapovalov with Fernandez closing it down after a doubles match.
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