Gabriel Diallo excited for Jannik Sinner showdown: 'I'm going to have to compete my butt off'

Player Features

Diallo excited for Sinner showdown: 'I'm going to have to compete my butt off'

Canadian explains why Cincinnati feels like a second home

Vic Kincer/Cincinnati Open Gabriel Diallo is competing in the Cincinnati ATP Masters 1000 event for the first time. By Andrew Eichenholz

In August 2021, Gabriel Diallo was entering his junior season at the University of Kentucky, which is about a two-hour drive from the Lindner Family Tennis Center, home of the Cincinnati Open. Still outside the Top 1,000 in the PIF ATP Rankings, Diallo and three of his roommates decided to make the trip to Mason for the ATP Masters 1000 event.

“We took the car and we just asked Felix [Auger-Aliassime] if he could give us a ticket. I don't remember if it ended up happening, I think it did,” Diallo told ATPTour.com. “We got tickets and I think it got rained out, so we just came, walked around, watched some tennis, and then went into the city and played bowling.”

Four years later, Diallo is one of the stars of the tournament, seeded 30th and set to face top seed Jannik Sinner on Monday for a place in the fourth round on his event debut.

“I don't know if it really hit me. We are so focused on what we're doing right now, but this year things happened really fast,” Diallo said. “I started [at the] end of the last year since the [US] Open until now… My game has been evolving really nicely. I still think there's so much I can improve. I think that what's great is I'm in a position where I'm ranked 35 in the world with a lot of things to improve.

“My team and I, we’re eager to get those chances to the bigger guys, the better-ranked guys, to see where our game is at and give ourselves the chances to win.”

Diallo and Sinner are both 23 years old, but have followed drastically different paths. While Diallo attended college in the United States, Sinner quickly stormed towards the top of the ATP Tour. In August 2019 when Sinner won the ATP Challenger Tour title in Lexington, Kentucky — home of Diallo’s school — the Canadian still did not have a PIF ATP Ranking.

But Diallo has made big strides this year, surging from No. 87 at the start of 2025 to No. 35. He carries plenty of momentum into his first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting with Sinner.

“It's exciting to have the chance to play the No. 1 player in the world. I think it's a great opportunity to see where my game is at. I think those type of players can expose what you're doing well, and what you can improve,” Diallo said. “We've never crossed paths. I guess we both didn't play in juniors, because I don't think he was very highly ranked in juniors, and I went the college route. I guess we have some similar junior careers. It should be exciting.”

About Sinner’s game, Diallo said: “He is doing everything really well. Serves well, plays really well behind serve, moves well, defends well. He does everything arguably to the best level in the world, so I'm going to have to play some really good tennis, some inspired tennis for sure. I'm going to have to compete my butt off to get myself a chance. I'm looking forward to it.”

Something that might help the Canadian is having the local crowd on his side. He said “a lot” of people were at his second-round match from Kentucky and that the area is “always a second home to me”.

“Right away, it felt like home, seriously. The school, they embraced us. Everybody there, they're all insane supporters,” Diallo said. “Even the alumni, the guys that graduated, on the tennis team, they watched all our matches… Like I said, it's always nice to play here and it feels like a second home for me.”

Click here to read article