It was a magical week for Gabriel Diallo at the Madrid Open, but all good things must come to an end. The Montrealer’s breakout run at the Masters 1000 event stalled on Thursday in the quarter-finals at the hands of world No. 11 Lorenzo Musetti.
Coming off the biggest win of his career on Wednesday, the Canadian got off to a quick start but could not keep up the momentum. Once the Italian got rolling, there was little Diallo could do to slow him down as Musetti advanced to the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-3 win.
Consistency was a problem for Diallo in the quarter-final clash. He committed 37 unforced errors while only managing 14 winners. He did not strike a single ace in the match. Musetti also feasted on the Canadian’s second serve, winning 77 per cent of the points when Diallo missed his first delivery.
The Montrealer showed little sign of nerves to start one of the biggest matches of his career. He made the first move in the opening set at 3-2, using a big forehand to set up a break point where he chipped-and-charged on a Musetti second serve and won the ensuing exchange in the front court to take a 4-2 lead.
Diallo’s advantage was short-lived as the early break seemed to wake up Musetti. After being broken, the Italian proceeded to win the next six games in a row to turn the 2-4 deficit into a set and a break lead.
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When Diallo tried to consolidate his break, he had a tough time getting his forehand over the net as he gifted the break right back. Another error-filled game from the Canadian at 4-4 set up Musetti to serve for the set. Diallo pushed hard to recover, holding four break-back points in the 10th game, but Musetti saved them all, two with big serves, before converting his second set point.
A tight forehand return winner gave the Italian a love-40 look in the opening game of the second and on the second break point, Diallo flubbed an overhead to give his opponent the early lead.
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While the Canadian held for 1-2 in the second to end his opponent’s run, he was struggling with his consistency and Musetti was able to keep his nose in front. Diallo only managed to win two points on return in the second set and played an error-filled ninth game to give away a second break and the match.
Even in defeat, Diallo will reach a new career-high ranking on Monday as he is projected to jump into the Top 60 of the ATP rankings for the first time. As a result, he shouldn’t need any lucky losers again anytime soon. He has already received direct entry into the Italian Open next week in Rome.
Feature Photo : Martin Sidorjak
