Canadian Gabriel Diallo bows out of U.S. Open following 4-set loss to American Paul

Gabriel Diallo’s impressive run at the U.S. Open is over.

The 22-year-old from Montreal lost 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 (3)to No. 14 seed Tommy Paul of the United States in the third round of the Grand Slam tennis tournament on Saturday.

Diallo, ranked 143rd in the world entering the tournament, qualified for only his second main draw at a major.

After winning three qualifying rounds, he upset No. 24 seed Arthur Fils of France in the second round and world No. 84 Jaume Munar of Spain in the main-draw opener at Flushing Meadows.

Diallo, who was the last Canadian remaining in the singles competition, is expected to move up to a career-high 103rd in the next ATP rankings.

A group of fans at Louis Armstrong Stadium chanted “Let’s go Diallo!” amid the pro-American crowd.

Paul broke Diallo three times in the opening set, but each time Diallo answered back with a break of his own to force a tiebreaker.

Diallo then hit an ace on set point to take the frame. Paul, however, cruised through the second and third sets.

In the fourth, Diallo earned two break points with the players tied 5-5 but couldn’t convert.

Paul jumped to a 6-1 lead in the tiebreaker. Diallo held off two match points, but the American ultimately took the match in three hours 26 minutes.

Paul had nine breaks to Diallo’s five and 50 unforced errors to Diallo’s 77.

In women’s doubles, defending U.S. Open champions Gabriela Dabrowski of Ottawa and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand advanced to the third round.

The No. 1 seeds defeated American Catherine Harrison and Poland’s Alicja Rosolska 7-5, 6-4, winning the match in 86 minutes. Dabrowski and Routliffe will face Angelica Moratelli of Italy and Jaqueline Cristian of Romania on Sunday in the round of 16.

WATCH | Diallo falls to Paul: 

Sinner dominant

Jannik Sinner never gave his third-round opponent, Chris O’Connell, even a moment to contemplate pulling off the sort of monumental upsets that eliminated Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz.

The No. 1-ranked Sinner, suddenly the favorite to win the men’s championship at Flushing Meadows next weekend, won the first five games and 21 of the first 29 points to make quite clear how things would go at Arthur Ashe Stadium and wrapped up a 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 victory over O’Connell in under two hours.

“I felt like he was on from the get-go,” O’Connell said. “I felt a little bit clueless, to be honest. … Every single shot, I just felt like I had to do something with it, because he was just on me. He was suffocating me.”

Stepping on court less than 15 hours after Djokovic’s loss to Alexei Popyrin, and two days after Alcaraz’s loss to Botic van de Zandschulp, Sinner was as dominant as can be in every facet of the sport. With 23-time major champion Serena Williams watching from an Ashe suite, Sinner struck 15 aces. He never faced a break point. He won five of O’Connell’s 12 service games. He finished with more than twice as many winners, 46, as unforced errors, 22.

Trying to collect his second Grand Slam title of the year after gaining the first of his career at the Australian Open in January, Sinner will face Paul in the fourth round on Monday.

Perhaps there was some wariness on Sinner’s part heading into Saturday, given recent events. This is, after all, only the third time in the Open era (the others were in 1973 and 2000) that two of the top three seeded men were gone before the fourth round.

So Sinner woke up as the man considered likeliest to win the U.S. Open, a status that belonged to No. 3 Alcaraz — the champion at the French Open and Wimbledon this season — before the tournament began. No. 2 Djokovic — the defending champ and owner of a men’s-record 24 major trophies — moved atop the odds when Alcaraz was sent home Thursday night, only to relinquish that after his own early exit Friday night.

The 87th-ranked O’Connell harboured hope of producing yet another surprise, even if he’s never beaten a member of the top 10 or been past the third round at a Slam.

What van de Zandschulp and Popyrin did allowed O’Connell to dream of producing something similar against Sinner.

“I mean, yeah, I’ve got to believe,” O’Connell said, “but I just felt that he was really on fire.”

There is something quite difficult about trying to follow up one career-best win with another, and van de Zandschulp didn’t really show up on Saturday, eliminated by No. 25 Jack Draper 6-3, 6-4, 6-2.

Paolini joins Gauff in 4th round

Earlier Saturday, Jasmine Paolini joined Coco Gauff as the only women to reach at least the fourth round at every major in 2024, getting that far at the U.S. Open for the first time with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over No. 30 seed Yulia Putintseva.

The fifth-seeded Paolini, a 28-year-old from Italy, had never made it past the second round in 16 appearances at majors entering this season. But she reached the fourth round at the Australian Open in January, before being the runner-up at both the French Open in June and Wimbledon in July.

Now she is once again into Week 2. Paolini compiled 13 of her 22 winners off the forehand side against Putintseva at Louis Armstrong Stadium and will meet 2023 French Open finalist Karolina Muchova on Monday.

Also reaching the fourth round with a win Saturday was No. 6 Jessica Pegula of the United States. She overwhelmed Jessica Bouzas Maneiro of Spain 6-3, 6-3 at Arthur Ashe Stadium. Bouzas Maneiro grabbed attention at Wimbledon by eliminating defending champion Marketa Vondrousova in the first round.