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MELBOURNE, Australia – The Canadian adventure Down Under had a few highlights, but didn’t go as well as you would hope to start the 2025 season.

We’ll go through all the Canadians who took part and assess their Aussie summers.

First up is Gabriel Diallo.

For the 22-year-old Diallo, making his Australian Open main-draw debut, there was plenty of good to take away.

Diallo qualified at the Hong Kong ATP 250, then got a wild card into the Auckland ATP 250, then on to Melbourne.

In the end, in all three tournaments, he lost to better players ranked higher than he is at the moment.

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Tournaments: 3
Won-Lost: 4-3
Prize Money: $144,412 US
Rankings Move: No. 87 =======> 85 (projected)

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Pre-tournament thoughts

As his first Australian Open dawned, Diallo spoke to Open Court about his 2024 season.

“Overall, I’m really proud of the year that I had in terms of ranking. It’s extremely positive. But not only that, I managed to play a full schedule with no injury, except at the beginning the year a little bit. Played throughout the summer, throughout the fall. That’s big. I think Marty (coach Martin Laurendeau) counted between 70 and 80 matches that I played. So that’s also a positive,” said Diallo, who played 75 matches in singles at all levels, along with eight more in doubles.

“And then just overall, my game improved a lot, much more complete. I’m a much better player than I was a year ago today. So overall, very happy. Obviously, there’s some matches I wish I would have won, like at Davis Cup. But without those losses, I wouldn’t have and become the player that I am today,” he added.

Diallo said his return, in particular, is better. “I can give myself more chances throughout matches to break. My transition game as well, especially now after the offseason, the work we put in. And overall, just my match experience dealing with matches, dealing with nerves and all that stuff,” he said.

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Uptick from 2024

A year ago, Diallo lost in the final round of the qualifying to the veteran David Goffin – a match he seemed to have in hand, only to wilt in the heat in a best-of-three-set match.

This year, straight in, he won his first five-setter against the Italian Luca Nardi – only the second he’d ever played in his young career. The first was a first-round, five-set loss to Kei Nishikori.

Nardi wasn’t a great matchup for Diallo, with the Italian’s speed and consistency.

But despite a few wobbles, the Canadian finished strongly; down two sets to one, he ran out the fourth and fifth sets as he was in much better shape physically than his smaller opponent.

Here’s what it looked like.

Diallo said he felt he could have gone longer, if necessary, and that Nardi started going down physically in the middle of the fourth set. “That gave me a huge boost of energy, and luckily, I was able to get a win,” he said. “Physical work goes a long way, especially en the offseason, but I think mental work as well, because those matches are long – they can be roller coasters mentally. So we put in the work mentally, to back ourselves, to go deep into matches.”

By the second round, Diallo had an even tougher mountain to climb: No. 19 seed Karen Khachanov. The two met twice in 2024 – both in high-pressure situations: in the first round at Diallo’s home tournament in Montreal, and then in Diallo’s first ATP Tour final, in Kazakhstan in the fall. Khachanov won both.

“Experience, great server, great competitor. Physically and mentally, it’s going to be a battle. He’s not going to go away at any point during the match, so I’m going to have to take my chances against him. I don’t have a choice. If I try to get into rallies with him and try to play his game, it’s going to be tough to win,” Diallo said.

In the end, Diallo tried to do just that. But it wasn’t good enough in a 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 defeat.

Diallo hit 62 winners, but he also made 45 unforced errors. That +17 ratio was the same as Khachanov’s (43 winners, 26 unforced).

But it was cleaner, on a lot of levels, than his first-round win in which he made 53 winners, but 78 unforced errors – and still won.

The game plan was on point: Diallo was super-aggressive, taking the net 60 times (versus 34 approaches in five sets in his opener) and winning 60 per cent of those points. He knew he likely couldn’t stay with Khachanov from the baseline, so he took risks.

But Diallo made too many errors on makeable volleys. And he just didn’t push Khachanov hard enough on his second serve; the Russian won 63 per cent of his second-serve points.

Next up: Davis Cup

Diallo, who is now officially a Monte Carlo resident, will return home to Montreal to help the Canadian Davis Cup team defeat Hungary and return to the finals qualifiers in September.

With Félix Auger-Aliassime opting to play the indoor events in Europe that are his bread and butter, Diallo will be the No. 2 behind Denis Shapovalov.

CAN v HUN in Montreal in February (without FAA)

It’s a sacrifice for him, as he’s also an excellent indoor hard-court player and likely will have to miss the Dallas Open, which has been upgraded to an ATP 500 this year.

Diallo is currently No. 5 on the alternates list to get in; but the qualifying begins on Saturday, Feb. 1 – which is the second day of the Davis Cup tie.

After that, he is scheduled to play the Delray Beach Open outdoors.