The final Canadian at the National Bank Open in Toronto has been eliminated, as Gabriel Diallo dropped his third-round match to Taylor Fritz 6-4, 6-2 on Friday night.
The Montreal native was unable to replicate the strong showing he had at Wimbledon against the world No. 4, when he took the American to five sets.
Fritz will advance to take on the 19th seed, Jiri Lehecka, in the round of 16, who defeated Arthur Fils to advance.
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Diallo showed early nerves against the second seed, committing a pair of double faults and another pair of unforced errors as Fritz opened the match with a break at love. Fritz’s first service game went just as smoothly, and he easily held to take a 2-0 lead in the first set.
Fritz had Diallo on the defence for much of the first set, pinning him deep with a series of powerful forehands that had the Canadian on his heels.
Facing the prospect of the American going up a double break, Diallo dug deep on double break point and strung together four-consecutuve points, including two aces, to hold and get himself back into the set.
Fritz’s serve was working for him throughout the first set, but he faced his first bit of adversity while up 4-3 as Diallo forced his first break point of the match. The second seed would crush his first ace of the match to save it and would eventually go on to hold.
The 27-year-old Fritz would clinch the set in short order, once again leaning on his service game to take the first set 6-4. The San Diego, California native landed just 48 per cent of his first serves but managed to win 86 per cent of his first-serve points and 76 per cent of his service points in the opening set.
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Diallo had another difficult service game early in the second set as he squandered two chances to close the game up 40-15 and allowed Fritz to break him for the second time in the match to go down a set and a break. After that swing in momentum, Fritz would find another gear, calmly holding on his next two service games and breaking Diallo one final time before serving out the match.
Unforced errors plagued the Canadian on Friday, as he committed 33, including six double faults, to 16 for Fritz.
Diallo was the last Canadian remaining in the Toronto draw after Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov were upset in their opening matches earlier in the week. The world No. 36 won his first career ATP Tour title earlier this season at the Libema Open.
Feature Photo: Peter Power
