Canada's Diallo falls in opener, ending Libema Open title defence

Canada's Gabriel Diallo returns to Brazil's Matheus Pucinelli de Almeida during the second set of a Davis Cup Qualifiers tennis singles match in Vancouver, on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

‘S-HERTOGENBOSCH, Netherlands — Canadian Gabriel Diallo, the defending champion, dropped his opening match at the Libema Open grass-court tournament Tuesday, falling 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 to France’s Adrian Mannarino.

Diallo fired seven aces and won 73 per cent of his first-serve points, but Mannarino converted four of nine break-point chances in the two-hour, 30-minute match.

Diallo fell to 6-13 on the season and is projected to slide 30 spots to No. 84 in the ATP live rankings after failing to defend the title he won last year.

The Montreal native remains alive in doubles, where he and Poland’s Hubert Hurkacz advanced to the quarterfinals with a 3-6, 6-4, 14-12 victory over India’s Yuki Bhambri and Australia’s Matthew Ebden.

An all-Canadian pairing of Montreal’s Felix Auger-Aliassime and Denis Shapovalov, of Richmond Hill, Ont., was scheduled to open its doubles campaign later Tuesday against Petr Nouza of the Czech Republic and Austria’s Niki Oberleitner.

Auger-Aliassime, the top seed in the men’s draw, will play his first singles match Wednesday against the winner of Tuesday’s match between Hurkacz and Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 9, 2026.

The Canadian Press