Photo Source: TTV
23-year-old Canadian Gabriel Diallo had never won a grass-court match on tour prior to this week. Now he is an ATP title winner.
He defeated Belgium’s Zizou Bergs, 7-5, 7-6(8), to win the Libema Open title in the Netherlands on Sunday.
“I don’t have the words,” he said after improving to 1-1 in ATP finals. “It’s something that you dream [about] for your whole life since you were a little kid, to get an ATP title. The fact that I was able to do it here after losing a final last year [at Almaty] it means the world to me.
“I’m very happy – not only for myself but for my whole team.”
Diallo saved match points in the second round against Jordan Thompson, then took out Karen Khachanov and Ugo Humbert to reach the final.
Bergs was also bidding for his first ATP title, after reaching his maiden final at Auckland (loss to Monfils) in January. “Gabriel, man, why today? Why do you have to play so good, so big?” Bergs said during the trophy ceremony. “Congratulations to you, you are a great guy, and I really mean that – everybody should know that you are a great guy.
“But also your team, I love your team – we spent more time over the last few years, we practiced a few times together and we will play doubles together soon at Wimbledon – I’m really happy for you guys.”
It was a close contest with Diallo claiming the only break of the match in the opening set. He saved both break points he faced at 5-5 in set one, before breaking Bergs for the set in the next game.
There were no break points in the second set. Diallo saved three set points in the tiebreak before finally converting his victory with a backhand winner.
Diallo is the first Canadian to win a grass-court title since 1993 (Rusedski).
After the final Diallo shared a story about a stringer who misspelled his name and called him Diablo instead of Diallo.
“Special shout-out to him,” Diallo said with a smile.
Diallo will make his ATP Top-50 debut next week, at No.44.
He thanked his team, saying “Since the moment we started working together we were never scared of dreaming big, we were always dreaming and striving for these moments, today hopefully it’s the first of many.”