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Two Canadians are in action tonight at the Australian Open in second-round matches.
Gabriel Diallo will cross swords with Karen Khachanov while Denis Shapovalov will do the same thing with Lorenzo Musetti. They should be at work around 9 p.m.
In the first round, Diallo (86th) needed more than four hours of work to overcome the Italian Luca Nardi 6-7 (1), 7-6 (3), 5-7, 6-1 and 6-2.
Diallo, 86th in the world, will face the 19th seed, who defeated Frenchman Adrian Mannarino (75th) 7-6 (5), 6-3 and 6-3 in the first round.
Against Nardi, Diallo hit 21 aces, winning 75 percent of the points when his first ball was in play to win the long duel. It was a first match in the main draw in Melbourne for Diallo, who had failed to qualify in the last two editions. He achieved his best Grand Slam result at the U.S. Open last summer, reaching the third round in New York.
Shapovalov also worked hard in the first round. The 56th player in the world needed more than three hours to overcome his opponent, the Spaniard Roberto Bautista-Agut (53rd), in four sets of 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 and 7-6 (8).
The 25-year-old Ontarian fired an impressive total of 25 aces against Bautista-Agut, but he also committed three times as many double faults as him (15-5). He only managed to put his first serve into play 48% of the time, statistics he will need to improve against the 16th seed tonight.
Shapovalov nevertheless recorded 71 winning shots, compared to the Spaniard’s 26. The maple leaf representative also lacked opportunism in the crucial moments of the match, converting only four of his 17 break points.
