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Two Canadians were in action Wednesday night at the Australian Open in second-round matches, facing two members of the top-20.
While Gabriel Diallo admitted defeat 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 against Karen Khachanov, Denis Shapovalov lost 7-6 (3), 7-6 (6), 6 -2 against the Italian Lorenzo Musetti.
Diallo has nothing to be ashamed of for his performance against Khachanov, but the experience and consistency of the 19th racket in the world finally got the better of him. He slammed 15 aces and committed 4 double faults. He broke his opponent once in five occasions.
The Montrealer leaves Melbourne having signed his first victory in this Grand Slam tournament, after beating Luca Nardi after five sets in the first round, despite two sets behind.
On Wednesday, Diallo obtained a first break situation at 4-3 in the first set after some good volleys, but was unable to make it happen. Khachanov finally won the tiebreaker 7-6 (4).
Diallo took the lead midway through the second set with a superb drop shot that gave him break point, which he then converted to lead 4-3 and eventually level the odds at a set all.
The 86th racket in the world continued to stay on Khachanov’s heels in the third set before opening the door for him. He committed an unforced error and conceded the break to fall behind 5-3. He fought well in the ninth game, giving himself a break point while trying to get back into the game, but the Russian closed the books on his fourth set point after a very long final rally.
Shapovalov remained neck and neck with the 16th seed for two hotly contested sets before breaking.
The 25-year-old Ontarian took the Italian by surprise by breaking him from the start, which gave him a 3-0 lead, but Musetti responded a little later to bring the tie 4-4.
Shapo, however, had a lot of problems on his second service ball and committed 7 double faults in this set out of a total of 15, including 3 in the same game under pressure at 5-5. He got away with it momentarily, but Musetti ultimately won the first set tiebreaker 7-6 (3) as Shapo lost his composure after falling behind 0-5.
The Canadian repeated the unfortunate trend on serve despite still holding his own in other aspects, concluding another tiebreaker at the end of the second set with another double fault.
This finally broke the back of Shapo, who was knocked down on his first serve in the third set. Shapo hadn’t completely given up giving himself two break chances while trailing 4-1, but he didn’t capitalize on those and Musetti cruised to victory.
Shapovalov had worked hard in the first round. The 56th player in the world needed more than three hours to overcome the Spaniard Roberto Bautista-Agut (53rd), in four sets of 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 and 7-6 (8) .
