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Who is the mysterious former waiter who bought Hollywood’s legendary MGM/UA studio in 1990?
Gabriel Diallo won’t soon forget this week’s Almaty Open and it’s not only because of what the Canadian has done on court.
Yes, Diallo reached a maiden ATP Tour quarter-final and now semi-final to move closer to the sought after Top 100 in the PIF ATP Rankings benchmark. But the newly turned 23-year-old also got to meet an older family member on his mom’s side for the first time.
“Here I met my cousin that I never met in my life before,” he said. “My cousin lives here in Almaty and has been coming to my matches, so it’s pretty special. And I think it’s something that helped me throughout the week.”
Diallo even intends to do some sightseeing with his cousin after his last match.
That could still be a couple of days away, since the 6-foot-8 big server beat Alejandro Tabilo 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 amid Almaty’s high altitude on Friday to land in the last four.
A hip injury affected the Montrealer earlier in the year to halt the momentum garnered from the end of 2023.
But the former University of Kentucky standout said that winning the Chicago Challenger in late July without dropping a set proved pivotal in his upturn. In all matches since that Challenger began, Diallo sports a 27-7 record.
Having been as high as No. 103 in the rankings in September after a third round showing as a qualifier at the US Open, Diallo’s live ranking eclipsed the Top 100 immediately following victory against the Canadian-born Tabilo.
“Would be nice to keep going, keep climbing the rankings but we keep a big focus on the process for sure,” said Diallo.
[ATP APP]It was a measured reply from the well-spoken Diallo yet he admits that he does spend his share of time glancing at the rankings.
“I do, especially after last week. I had to defend points and I managed to defend a big chunk,” said Diallo, who won the Bratislava Challenger 12 months ago. “So I knew I was getting there. Before starting in Almaty I was 118, now I’m just inside (the Top 100) but there are guys behind me that are hungry, playing just as well, that are trying to make a move as well. So I got to keep focusing and doing my part.”
In his still young ATP main-draw career, Diallo achieved another personal best Friday by tallying 70 per cent of his second-serve points against the second seed.
“It’s good for sure because you don’t want to be one dimensional to the point that if you don’t make your first serve, you know you are in big trouble,” he said.
He is the type of player that likes to celebrate career milestones without going overboard when his tournament wraps up. That might mean eating a little cake, having one beer, a glass of wine or when he is at home, enjoying poutine.
What he has accomplished in Almaty no doubt merits a treat, even if Diallo loses Saturday versus fourth-seed Francisco Cerundolo. The tournament hotel might be the starting point.
“The view is insane from the hotel,” said Diallo. “We got the mountains.”
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Hugo Gaston produced more than just a box of tricks on Friday at the European Open in Antwerp.
The Frenchman dug deep to overcome one of the ATP Tour’s most renowned battlers, Alex de Minaur, and reach the semi-finals at the ATP 250. Gaston did not earn a break point between the fourth game of the opening set and the final game of the match, but he found a late charge on return to seal a 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 victory.
First Top 10 win! 👏
Gaston fights past de Minaur 6-3 3-3 7-5 to reach the SF in Antwerp!@EuroTennisOpen | #EuropeanOpen pic.twitter.com/aOYdwgyUxO
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 18, 2024
“It was really close. Alex is such a great player, playing unbelievable tennis this year and in the past few years,” said Gaston after notching his first win in five attempts against an opponent from the Top 10 of the PIF ATP Rankings. “When you play against Alex, you have to be ready to play a lot of rallies. I have a little bit of pain in my body, but I tried to stay focused on the game and on my shots, and it was a good one today.”
Although his ability to go toe-to-toe with De Minaur in extended rallies was the key to his quarter-final win, Gaston nonetheless found time to sprinkle some of his trademark creative magic on Friday’s encounter. The best example of that came in the sixth game of the match, when he produced an outrageous no-look overhead from behind the baseline.
Gaston won 85 per cent (17/20) of points at the net against De Minaur, according to Infosys ATP Stats, en route to reaching his third ATP Tour semi-final. He now leads the Australian 2-0 in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series, after he also prevailed in the pair’s clash at Roland Garros in 2022.
Standing in Gaston’s way of a spot in his third tour-level championship match will be Roberto Bautista Agut. The Spaniard earlier upset third seed Felix Auger-Aliassime 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(6) to reach his first ATP Tour semi-final since June 2023.
Quarter-final defeat in his first tournament since the US Open was a blow to De Minaur’s hopes of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals for the first time. The 25-year-old is ninth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, 275 points behind eighth-placed Andrey Rublev.
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Stan Wawrinka is surging in Stockholm.
The Swiss star on Friday delivered a classy display to defeat top seed Andrey Rublev 7-6(5), 7-6(5) and reach the semi-finals at the BNP Paribas Nordic Open in the Swedish capital. Wawrinka held firm in a pair of tie-breaks to seal a one-hour, 52-minute triumph and defeat an opponent from the Top 10 of the PIF ATP Rankings for the first time since August 2023.
“The key was to stay focused and positive with myself,” said Wawrinka, who let slip a 2-0 lead in the second set before completing his win. “Andrey is such an amazing player, but I was feeling good on the court, I was moving well. I could start to dictate a little bit, and with so much support from the crowd, it is easier to fight on the court.”
𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧-𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥 🔥@stanwawrinka stuns Rublev 7-6(5) 7-6(5) to reach the last 4 in Stockholm!@sthlm_open | #bnpparibasnordicopen pic.twitter.com/ruoDOBKHnj
— ATP Tour (@atptour) October 18, 2024
The former World No. 3 Wawrinka sent 14 aces past Rublev, according to Infosys ATP Stats, en route to opening a 3-2 lead in the pair’s Lexus ATP Head2Head series. Awaiting the three-time major champion in Saturday’s semi-finals will be fourth seed and 2021 Stockholm champion Tommy Paul, who earlier battled past Miomir Kecmanovic 7-6(9), 6-2.
By reaching the last four for the first time in four Stockholm appearances, the 39-year-old Wawrinka became the third-oldest semi-finalist in ATP Tour history (since 1990), behind Jimmy Connors and Ivo Karlovic.
“I cannot change my age, but most important for me is that when I enter the court, I always try to fight,” said Wawrinka. “I try to improve and enjoy what I am doing. The reason I keep going is to play matches like this, with so many people giving me good energy on the court, and I’m super happy to have the chance to play one more match tomorrow.”
[ATP APP]Friday’s defeat to Wawrinka was a setback to Rublev’s hopes of qualifying for the Nitto ATP Finals for fifth consecutive year. The World No. 7 remains eighth in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin, but the four players below him are all still competing at ATP 250 level this week.
One of them is the 11th-placed Paul, who saved a set point at 7/8 in the first-set tie-break against Kecmanovic before completing his Stockholm quarter-final win. The American, who is chasing a debut appearance at the Nitto ATP Finals, is 645 points shy of Rublev in eighth.
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Francisco Cerundolo served up some swift revenge on Friday at the Almaty Open.
The fourth-seeded Argentine downed home favourite Alexander Shevchenko 6-2, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals at the Kazakhstani ATP 250. Cerundolo, who fell to an opening-round defeat to Shevchenko in Shanghai just 13 days ago, converted three of six break points he earned to set a last-four meeting with Gabriel Diallo.
“I’m super happy. I knew it was going to be a really tough match,” said Cerundolo in his on-court interview. “We played last week in Shanghai and he beat me in a really close match. I knew he was playing super good, I told him that at the net. I knew what I had to do and I think I did it really well. I served well, and I’m really happy to get to another semi-final, and my first on hard courts this year.”
[ATP APP]Cerundolo won 92 per cent (24/26) of points behind his first serve, according to Infosys ATP Stats, en route to his 65-minute triumph against Shevchenko. The 26-year-old, who won his third ATP Tour title in Umag in July, will now prepare for just his second tour-level semi-final on hard courts following his breakout run at the 2022 Miami Open presented by Itau.
His next test in Kazakhstan is a maiden Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Diallo, who earlier upset second seed Alejandro Tabilo 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. The 23-year-old Canadian Diallo, who has risen 19 spots to No. 99 in the PIF ATP Live Rankings as a result of his run in Almaty so far, will be competing in his first ATP Tour quarter-final.
“I haven’t watched [Diallo] a lot,” said Cerundolo. “We warmed up today together, but I don’t think I’ve seen many of his matches. I’m going to watch a little bit of him [on video] and learn how he plays. I think it’s going to be a tough match. He’s huge, he serves really well, hits the ball really well. Here in these conditions, he’s going to be super tough.”
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Rafael Nadal says he feels emotionally prepared for ending his career at next month’s Davis Cup Finals but the Spaniard will only contest the singles if he is “ready to win”.
World number nine Danielle Collins says she will “be back” next year after previously announcing she would retire at the end of the season.
Almaty’s staging of a first ATP tournament has proven to be a historic occasion for one of its residents, too.
Beibit Zhukayev contests his maiden ATP Tour quarter-final on Friday at the Almaty Open, with his parents expected to be in attendance again.
“I’m really happy that I got through to my first ATP quarter-final, especially playing at home,” said the 24-year-old wild card, who advanced to the last eight when the surging Tomas Machac retired due to illness after four games Thursday. “It’s an incredible feeling. I’m very proud of myself.”
Zhukayev resides close to the mountains, about a 20-to-25-minute drive from the tournament venue without traffic, the No. 213 player in the PIF ATP Rankings said.
When traffic strikes Kazakhstan’s most populous city, the commute stretches to an hour.
He has mixed sleeping in his own bed with heading to the official tournament hotel, depending on the circumstances.
Zhukayev won’t need to head to Almaty Arena too early on Friday since his quarter-final against Karen Khachanov features in the night session slot of 7 p.m.
A victory over the third seed would send Zhukayev’s PIF ATP Live Rabking past his career high of No. 171 set in May and get him closer to his “first goal” of breaking the Top 100.
“Slowly, step by step, I’m improving this year,” said Zhukayev. “I’m happy in what form I am in right now here. So I hope I will improve more and more by the end of the year.”
[ATP APP]The end of 2023 gave Zhukayev much reason for optimism. He collected his first ATP Challenger Tour title in Charlottesville last November to help secure a first Top 200 finish in the year-end PIF ATP Rankings.
But illness and injuries scuppered the progress of the big server, who told the ATP last year that he started to play tennis aged eight while on holiday in Turkey.
“This year was not easy,” he said. “I made a good preseason, but then I got sick. I had some virus in my body and I lost my form that I built in the preseason.”
He still made the trip to Australia, but wasn’t 100 per cent. He missed about another month with illness thereafter, but felt his form improved on grass.
To that end, Zhukayev got closer to reaching the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament than ever before when he landed in the third and final round of Wimbledon qualifying.
However, a lower back injury halted his progress during the North American hard-court swing.
With his back feeling better, Zhukayev qualified for the Rolex Shanghai Masters for the second consecutive year — his first ATP win came in Shanghai last season prior to losing to Khachanov despite 20 aces — ahead of Almaty.
“In China, I started feeling better,” said Zhukayev. “My lower back got better. And, yeah, Shanghai was not bad.”
The ATP Masters 1000 ended with Jannik Sinner beating Novak Djokovic. Djokovic, along with fellow “Big Three” members Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, were Zhukayev’s tennis idols.
“When I was growing up I always was watching Federer,” said Zhukayev. “I like how he played. And Nadal [I liked] for his athleticism and his character. He was always fighting ‘til the end. And Djokovic as well.
“He was the last one in that company but at the end he is the greatest now, the greatest tennis player ever.”
Djokovic also has ties to Kazakhstan, claiming the title in Astana in 2022 before the event’s relocation to Almaty.
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