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Who’da thunk, after the first round of this year’s US Open, that the only Canadian survivor would be qualifier Gabriel Diallo, in his first career US Open main draw?

But that’s what happened after a “Tragic Tuesday” in which Félix Auger-Aliassime, Denis Shapovalov, Bianca Andreescu and Leylah Fernandez – all of whom have deep runs in New York on their resumés – all went out.

Even better, Diallo took care of No. 24 seed Arthur Fils in four sets, in the second round after needing four to eliminate Jaume Munar in the first round.

The Frenchman Fils is an up-and-comer, more precocious than Diallo and just 20. And Munar is a solid, veteran Tour player even if he’s never had much career success at the US Open.

Canuckian day in the Big Apple ends … 1-5

So these were two solid, calm, mature victories for a player who is a relatively late bloomer after spending several years in college at the University of Kentucky.

And on Saturday, he played the biggest match of his career so far, as he takes on speedy and talented No. 14 seed Tommy Paul.

Update: It didn’t go his way – a train wreck of a match with multitudinous breaks of serve, a skittish Paul and a Diallo who sort of hit the wall, in his sixth match of the tournament. But it was another solid showing.

There is only one Canadian journalist at the US Open this year, and it’s from a French-language outlet. So there wasn’t been too much pub on Diallo, who stands on the cusp of the top 100 in the ATP Tour rankings for the first time with his five wins so far. But by the time he beat Fils, things picked up.

Diallo got a piece on the tournament website after his win over Fils.

Low-key rise

Diallo was always going to be a tall kid.

But according to his youth coach, he had a big growth spurt at age 9-10 that took a toll on his knees. So things were tough early.

(He’s still dealing with it today; it popped up in the qualifying, and you can see Diallo with some comprehensive tape on the left one).

By 14, still growing, Tennis Canada (so the story goes) decided he didn’t have the level. And they basically gave up on him. To make that judgment on a kid who’s going to have the height you love, while his body is still trying to come to terms with that growth and adjust, seems in retrospect a hasty decision.

Then again, they gave up in Leylah Fernandez, too, judging that she’d be too small to ever make it.

Félix Auger-Aliassime’s father Sam, a tennis coach in Quebec City who low-key enjoys taking players the national federation rejects and seeing what he can make of them, took him on.

Diallo relocated to Quebec City, and stayed at Papa Aliassime’s house for several years.

Sam Aliassime even brought 16-year-old Diallo to Indian Wells with him in 2018, when 17-year-old son Félix qualified for the main draw and beat countryman Vasek Pospisil before bowing out to Milos Raonic.

It was quite the Canadian week.

Here’s a look at Diallo courtside, possibly never imagining he’d be in this position 6 1/2 years later.

Diallo didn’t break glass as a junior; he played mostly lower-level Grade 4 and Grade 5 ITF events, and barely broke into the top 600 in the rankings.

So he was a fine candidate for college tennis. And like many Canadian players, he headed to the University of Kentucky.

That’s where he got the match reps and bloomed as a player.

And now, Tennis Canada thinks he … has the level. They’re taking care of his coaching needs with former Davis Cup captain and Denis Shapovalov coach Martin Laurendeau, to accompany him to (hopefully) the top levels of the game.

Nearly out in qualies

Diallo was down 3-6, 3-5 in the secound round of US Open qualifying before saving a couple of match points and getting by Titouan Droguet of France.

Just by doing that, he improved upon his US Open qualifying debut in 2023, when he lost a heartbreaker from a winning position against 2012 Roland Garros junior champion Kimmer Coppejans.

And he went further, beating Valentin Royer in the final round before starting his main draw run.

Diallo has had some good luck to start the tournament as well; playing on Tuesday (when it was hot, but not like Wednesday, and he played in the evening) and Thursday.

And he’s learned some lessons from his final-round qualifying match in Australia this past January, which was best-of-three but was played in pretty significant heat.

Diallo didn’t hydrate enough. And by the end of a most winnable match and an opportunity to make his first career main draw at a major against a non-vintage David Goffin, his body quit on him.

Next chance: Paris

Diallo was one and done in the Roland Garros qualifying in 2023. But this year, he navigated a lot of rain to defeat Argentine clay-courters Gennaro Olivieri and Marco Trungelliti in the first two rounds, and Alexander Ritschard of Switzerland in the final round to make his first main draw.

All were long three-setters. And the second round against Trungelliti, truncated as it was by a long rain delay, was perhaps the most impressive of the three.

Five-set debut vs Nishikori

Diallo has still played just one five-setter in his career. And that came at Roland Garros this spring, in the first round against veteran Kei Nishikori.

Nishikori, beset by injuries the last few years, is making another comeback and if he isn’t what he once as, he was still very, very good.

He got past Diallo in the end, in five sets. But it took enough out of him that Nishikori had to retire in his second-round match.

Diallo, at 6-8 and with a big man’s game, was all the more impressive on the red clay.

An early rock-star moment

Diallo, then ranked No. 669, got a wild card into the qualifying in Montreal two summers ago.

And there, he took No. 62 James Duckworth on and beat him 6-3, 7-6 (5).

Duckworth was SO chapped by this that he went to work on his racquet and turned it into sculpture.

And it led to the kid’s first rock-star moment.

He had nothing left for his final round against Hugo Gaston, retiring down 2-6, 1-2.

Other highlights

Diallo has had some great moments already. In the summer of 2022 he beat Jerry Shang to win the Challenger in Granby – which, given Granby’s proximity to Montreal, was the kind of home win that can take you a long way.

He made his Davis Cup debut that fall in the prelims against Serbia.

It took until a quarterfinal effort at a Challenger in Lille, France in March 2023 for Diallo to break into the top 200.

But there were some good wins on grass that summer: Dan Evans in Surbiton, Alex Michelsen in Nottingham.

Given a wild card into Toronto last summer, he beat Evans again, in the first round.

And last fall, he upset Lorenzo Musetti in straight sets in the Davis Cup finals prelims and won both his singles matches against Korea in Montreal in January, in the Davis Cup qualifier.

Results have been up and down the last few months, even as Diallo’s tennis is clearly and gradually improving – more pop on the serve, improved backhand, better movement and more of a willingness to come to the net.

The serve should be, can be – will be – an even bigger weapon although the technique needs to be tweaked.

Diallo came into New York with some confidence with a Challenger title in Chicago and a final in Cary, NC.

And now, the match of his life against Paul. And you get the sense it’s only the beginning.

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