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.”