Following meteoric rise, Diallo ready to star in Toronto

And so, Gabriel Diallo took advantage of a night off and headed downtown to catch The Weeknd concert. Even amidst the blinding lights, Diallo couldn’t help but want to keep track of what was happening at Sobeys Stadium. Over and over, the big fella kept checking the National Bank Open presented by Rogers app on his phone to check the score of the match involving a friend and mentor who was wrapping up a distinguished tennis career.

Vasek Pospisil was the vet when Diallo was in the shadows as the kid on Canada’s 2022 Davis Cup-winning roster. Three years after that championship run, Diallo is no longer the unknown in tennis circles. Matter of fact, at this, the second Toronto NBO of his young career, it feels like the Montrealer is on the verge of a real breakthrough to take the tour by storm as the summer hardcourt swing gets going.

It has been a meteoric rise these last few seasons for Diallo, coming out of college for the pros three years ago with a ranking of 988 in the world. By the beginning of the 2024 season, he’d snuck into the Top 150. And then came last fall in New York and the first big statement of his young career, reaching the third round at the U.S. Open and starting to turn heads.

By this spring, it was on. A quarter-final run in Madrid, then the lawns in 's-Hertogenbosch in early June, where Diallo upset three Top-50 players on the way to lifting his first ATP trophy in the Wimbledon tune-up.

“So it was step by step, a lot of small achievements that I was able to do that made me in the position that I am today,” says Diallo, now ranked a career-high No. 35. “All those gave me the belief that, you know, I belong in the top 50, and to try and dream and achieve big things.”

The dream is becoming more of a reality. Diallo has all the makings of a bonafide star in the making. His game is taking more and more shape, with an on-the-attack, come-to-the-net style that befits his six-foot-eight physique. The transition from the college game has required major adjustments – from positioning, getting closer to the baseline, and the mindset of being okay with being committed to a high-risk brand of tennis that may not lead to immediate self-gratification.

It's about “being okay with losing, but playing the right way,” Diallo reasons. “It cost me a lot of matches in the last two-and-a-half years, but it also made me in the ranking that I have today.”

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His way of expressing himself on court is to be “super aggressive.” Watch him now and Diallo, without hesitation, will come in on second serve returns and put a ton of pressure on opponents. It’s almost as if it unlocks a freedom on the court for him.

Diallo is smart, engaging, welcoming and has the megawatt smile. He’s aware. A comfortable-in-his-own-skin, bilingual, well-spoken pro athlete that brings a suave and humility, with a quiet confidence, knowing there’s so much runway ahead. Amazingly, he is only 23 and has a thirst to learn – about the game, how to navigate what goes into life on-tour and all the little ways of being, and conducting himself as, a pro.

Consider what Diallo said at his press conference here over the weekend: “I think that the expectation that I put on myself is the one that matters the most.”

Two years ago in Toronto, Diallo won his first-ever Masters main-draw match. This summer, he is seeded with a first-round bye. Opens on a Wednesday. It’s all new, and that’s how quickly it has all come.

In a lot of ways, it’s only the beginning. But Diallo isn’t getting ahead of himself. His process that has gotten him this far is above all the focus.

“Your base level that you bring every day, week in and week out has to be higher,” says Diallo.

If that continues, so will the trajectory. Where dreaming and achieving can continue to collide. 

The ATP's best return to Toronto this summer for the National Bank Open presented by Rogers July 26 to Aug. 7, 2025 at Sobeys Stadium. 2025 Tickets are on sale. Get your tickets today!

Feature Photo : Martin Sidorjak