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Canada’s Gabriel Diallo is out of the Wimbledon men’s draw after a marathon five-set loss to Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego in second-round action Thursday.
Diallo twice came back from a set down before losing 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (6), 6-2 in a match that took four hours 23 minutes to complete.
Sonego, who improved to 2-0 against Diallo, scored an early break to go up 2-0 in the final set.
Diallo got the break back to cut Sonego’s lead to 3-2, but the Italian won against serve in the next game and again to clinch the match.
Diallo had been broken just once over the previous four sets.
Diallo’s loss leaves fellow Montreal native Felix Auger-Aliassime as the lone Canadian left in singles competition. The third seed is scheduled to face American Michael Zheng in a third-round match Friday.
In first-round women’s doubles competition at the grass-court Grand Slam, Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., and Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putinseva fell 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 to third seeds Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan and Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia.
Swiatek clears dangerous hurdle
Defending champion Iga Swiatek cleared a potentially dangerous early hurdle with ease as she defeated former world number one Karolina Pliskova to reach Round 3 on Thursday.
Czech 34-year-old Pliskova, back on the rise after an ankle injury almost ended her career, landed some heavy artillery on Centre Court but was no match for Swiatek who won 6-1 6-3.
Swiatek, aiming to break the so-called champion’s curse and become the first woman for a decade to retain the Wimbledon crown, looked sharp in the sunshine, taking the opening set in 25 minutes before being forced to work a bit harder.
She has now reached the last-32 stage at 26 successive Grand Slam tournaments — a record only bettered by Martina Navratilova and Conchita Martinez.
“I’m feeling more stable today — and that’s good. The first round was really emotional for sure,” Swiatek, who was pushed to three sets in her opener by Taylor Townsend, said on court. “Today I felt like it was another day in the office.
“Even when she was playing fast and flat, I knew that my spin gives me control.”
Pliskova missed the entire 2025 season after rupturing ankle ligaments at the 2024 U.S. Open and began the year ranked 1,054 but has battled back up into the top 100.
She reached the Wimbledon final in 2021 and there were flashes of the pulverizing ground strokes and powerful serve as she occasionally managed to knock six-time Grand Slam champion Swiatek out of her comfort zone.
Pliskova even led 2-0 at the start of the second set but double-faults gifted Swiatek successive service breaks and the Pole needed no second invitation to race to victory.
Told that Navratilova, who was commentating on the match, had given her an A+ for her performance, Swiatek said there was still some room for improvement.
“I felt like I played so many dirty shots in that final game especially, I wasn’t able to control them that much,” she said. “So maybe not A+, more like B I would say.”
Fritz moves on
Last year’s semifinalist Taylor Fritz continued his smooth progress by mowing down fellow American Patrick Kypson 6-2 6-2 7-5 to make the third round on Thursday and remain on course for a maiden Grand Slam title.
Fritz recorded his best result at the All England Club 12 months ago and the sixth seed followed up his straight-sets win over lucky loser Dusan Lajovic in the last round with another convincing display to emerge as a dark horse.
“It feels great, especially when you’re first on,” Fritz said about going through in three sets.
“I feel like I have a good amount of time the rest of the day. Especially just with the feeling of how that third set was going, you play these sets where you feel like you’re in control, you’re the one with the break chances.”
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