Four the second time this week, Montreal’s Gabriel Diallo delivered an upset at Eastbourne. After defeating Terence Atmane of France on Monday, Diallo defeated Tomas Martin Etcheverry of Argentina, 6-7, 6-3, 6-2 in the second round on Wednesday. Etcheverry was the fourth seeded player in Eastbourne, and the 32nd ranked player in the world. Meanwhile, Atmane was ranked 50th in the world.
Diallo’s serve was working extremely well. Diallo had 14 serves compared to 10 for Etcheverry. The winning percentage on the first serve was another key statistic. Diallo was at 86% and Etcheverry was at 62%. Diallo also broke Etcheverry three times in 12 opportunities. Etcheverry, only had one break point opportunity in the entire march, and did not capitalize.
This was the second time in two matches that Diallo beat Etcheverry. Diallo won 6-3, 6-0 in the first round of Miami last year.
It has been a challenging season for Diallo, the third ranked Canadian men’s tennis player. He had a five match losing streak over two months before winning his two straight matches at Eastbourne.
On Thursday, Diallo lost 6-1, 6-4 to Great Britain’s Jack Draper. There are two British players in the semifinals in Eastbourne. The other is Toby Samuel. The other two semifinalists are Ugo Humbert of France and Zizou Bergs of Belgium.
