On August 28, 2022, Gabriel Diallo crossed paths with Marcelo Ríos and his student Juncheng Shang. The Canadian tennis player, then 20 years old, was looking for his first Challenger title in Granby, while the Asian arrived very motivated, since a few weeks before had won the crown in Lexington in his first tournament with the former world number one as coach.

The ranking difference favored the Chinese junior, then only 17 years old, because she was in 246th place in the ranking, while her rival was in 519th position. However, this distance was greatly reduced thanks to the support of the public who fervently supported the local player, who also has an important characteristic: he is 2.03 meters tall.

“Come on, Jerry!” cried Ríos to his student, who didn’t look quite comfortable on the concrete of Granby. The first partial was defined by details. In the ninth game, there was the first break of the match in favor of the Canadian, who made the break with a remarkable right angle. Then, without major inconvenience, the local guest condemned the set on his serve. It was the first time this week that the Chinese lost a set.

Diallo, a native of Montreal, was inspired and the young tennis player from Beijing failed to bother him with his shots. In power, he went broke in the seventh and eleventh games. However, The nerves did not allow him to endorse the break, even dropping two match points.

The party went to decisive game and there Shang had some good times, but it was the Canadian who played near-perfect tennis to claim the first crown of his career and end the undefeated Chilean, who weeks later would be fired by the Asian. amid a bitter controversy with the athlete’s father.

“It was really fun to play there because it’s an hour from where I live. My friends were there, the crowd really hugged me. I was playing free and motivated. It was the best experience of my professional career so far.he recalled in an interview with the official ATP website.

The story of Gabriel Diallo is multicultural. His mother was a Ukrainian national handball team, while his father is a computer programmer from Guinea. Very early on, sport was present in his life. “I did athletics and gymnastics. People always tell me I should play basketball. But the two I mostly played were tennis and handballwhich is also a fun sport to play,” he revealed.

After this title in Granby, his career took a leap forward. His results at challenger level have allowed him to climb quite a bit in the rankings to the point that It is now ranked 134 and last week he had the luxury of advancing one lap at the Toronto Masters 1000, after overtaking the Briton Daniel Evans (21st), in the most important victory of his career.

His success in Granby earned him his debut last year in the group stage of the Davis Cup Final. He lost a 6-2 double against Serbian Laslo Djere, and now he will repeat the experience of the appointment in this same forum.and with good chances of being a sole player in Bologna, against Italy, Sweden and Chiledue to the loss of Félix Auger-Aliassime.

Right at the start He was trained by Sam Aliassime, the father of Auger-Aliassime, then entered to study finance at the University of Kentucky., where he excelled in the NCAA and achieved several milestones. Of course, he gave up his last year of university competition to devote himself fully to his profession.

From the hand of Martin Laurendeau, historic former captain of the Davis Cup of Canada, the giant already seems ready to make its next leap to the top 100powers with which he threatens those led by Nicolás Massú.