Canada’s Diallo, Shapovalov, Andreescu lose as tennis season starts Asian swing
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TOKYO – Canada’s Gabriel Diallo pushed second-seeded Taylor Fritz to a third-set tiebreak, but ultimately lost 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3) in first-round action Thursday at the Japan Open tennis tournament.
Diallo, who’s ranked 35th in the world, double-faulted to give Fritz a 6-3 lead in the tiebreak and three match points.
The American then smashed an ace on his first chance to win the match, which finished in two hours and nine minutes.
The 23-year-old Diallo from Montreal fell to 0-3 against Fritz, who won in straight sets when the two met in third-round play at last month’s National Bank Open in Toronto.
Fritz will play Portugal’s Nuno Borges in the second round.
On Wednesday, Canada’s Denis Shapovalov fell 7-5, 6-3 to Germany’s Daniel Altmaier
Altmaier converted four of his eight break-point chances, with three coming at critical times. He broke to go up 6-5 in the first set before winning against serve to open and close the second set.
The German evened his career series with Shapovalov at 1-1 after the 26-year-old from Richmond Hill, Ont., prevailed at Wimbledon last year.
Shapovalov, who was seeded seventh in Tokyo, was playing at the ATP 500 tournament for the first time since 2022, when he advanced to the semifinals before losing to Taylor Fritz of the United States.
It was Shapovalov’s first match since the U.S. Open, where he fell to top-ranked Jannik Sinner in the third round. He returned to action after getting married to Swedish tennis player Mirjam Bjorklund last weekend in Greece.
Fritz, seeded second in Tokyo this year, was set to face Montreal’s Gabriel Diallo in first-round action on Thursday morning (Wednesday night ET).
Also Wednesday, Bianca Andreescu of Mississauga, Ont., fell 6-4, 7-6 (4) to Hungary’s Anna Bondar in the opening round of the WTA 1000 China Open.
The 25-year-old Canadian returned to action after sustaining an ankle injury at the National Bank Open in Montreal that kept her out of the U.S. Open.
Andreescu, a former world No. 4 who entered the tournament at No. 181, saw her record fall to 9-9 as she continued her attempt to regain the form that saw her win the 2019 U.S. Open.
Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., seeded 25th in Beijing, was scheduled to face former No. 3 Maria Sakkari of Greece on Friday morning.
Toronto’s Victoria Mboko, seeded 21st, also received a bye into the second round and will face either Czechia’s Katerina Siniakova or Russia’s Anastasia Potapova.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 24, 2025.