Canada’s Gabriel Diallo makes its way to the Madrid Open quarterfinals to win Dimitrov
Montreal’s Gabriel Diallo made a comeback on Wednesday with a 5-7, 7-6 (7) return, advancing to his first Masters quarterfinal in Wednesday’s 15-shot seed Grigor Dimitrov.
Diallo won the second set in a tough decisive game, leading the game 1-1 before taking a break from the opening game of the third set.
The 23-year-old Canadian won his first game after forcing his veteran opponent into a mistake.
“Tennis are up and down, so you just have to try to manage,” Diallo said. “Luckily, today I managed to flip and win the game.”
Dimitrov took advantage of his advantage in a competitive second set, shooting seven ACs in his final three games and another seven A-s in the finals.
But Diallo scored three and won two points at 8-7 before going to the second set with ACE.
“I honestly thought I was going home,” Dillo said. “I thought the edge was thin.
“It’s probably the best performance I’ve ever had in my life. I was lucky to come up with a loose mistake of 4-6 (his) and then I was confident 5-6 after serving. Then I saved another match point.”
The key moment in the first set was in Game 11, when Diallo alternated when Dimitrov beats two ACE doubles to win the only breakout in the scene in a critical period.
Both players served strongly, with only two breaks throughout the game. Diallo faces only one breakpoint, while Dimitrov faces four.
Dimitrov won 14 trump cards against Diallo’s eight, an impressive total of players on the surface.
Next, Diallo will face the winner of the match between Australia’s sixth seed Alex de Minaur and Italy’s tenth seed Lorenzo Musetti.
Diallo’s best run ever in the ATP 1000 Championship comes with several big breaks. He became a lucky loser after his lack of qualifying, and was promoted to a lucky loser when Spanish star Carlos Alcaraz exited the second round due to injury.
But he was full of value on the court, beating Belgium’s Zizou Bergs, Poland’s Kamil Majchrzak, former world No. 8 British Cameron Norrie, now Dimitrov.
According to the live rankings of this tour, Diallo ranked 78 with the highest ATP tour in his career. His victory over Dimitrov will lift him to No. 54.
