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Top seed Alex de Minaur of Australia defeated Montreal’s Gabriel Diallo 7-6 (8), 6-3 in first-round action Tuesday at the HSBC Championships.
De Minaur outlasted Diallo in a back-and-forth first-set tiebreaker, forcing the Canadian into an unforced error while serving on set point.
The Australian took control of the second set with a hard-fought break to go up 3-1.
Diallo failed to convert three game points, and de Minaur finally converted his fourth break point in a game that took 15 minutes 25 seconds to complete.
De Minaur will next face Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., at the ATP 500 grass-court event at London’s Queen’s Club. Shapovalov broke a five-match losing streak with a first-round victory over Britain’s Jack Pinnington Jones on Monday.
Diallo, who saw his world ranking drop 30 points to No. 84 after he failed to win a match in his title defence at last week’s Libema Open, saw his record this season drop to 6-15.
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