Towering Canadian Gabriel Diallo reaches 3rd round in Toronto

TORONTO (AP) — Towering Canadian Gabriel Diallo beat Matteo Gigante of Italy 6-3, 7-6 (5) on Wednesday to reach the third round of the National Bank Open.

The 6-foot-8 right-hander from Montreal finished off Gigante in 1 hour, 46 minutes in the rain-interrupted match.

Diallo saved two set points at 2-5 before breaking back and eventually forcing a tiebreaker. Gigante took a 5-3 lead, the dropped the last four points, double-faulting on match point.

“Tennis is sometimes pretty crazy with the momentum switches that you see throughout a match,” Diallo said.

Diallo won his first ATP Tour title last month in the Netherlands. He’ll face second-seeded Taylor Fritz of the United States, a 7-5, 7-6 (1) winner over Roberto Carballes Baena of Spain in a rain-delayed night match.

In other second-round matches, fourth-seeded American Ben Shelton beat French qualifier Adrian Mannarino 6-2, 6-3, and sixth-seeded Russian Andrey Rublev topped Hugo Gaston of France 6-2, 6-3.

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AP tennis: https://apnews.com/hub/tennis