Canadians Diallo, Draxl bounced in opening round at Australian Open

MELBOURNE — Gabriel Diallo started strong, but he was no match for the third-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany in the opening round of men’s singles at the Australian Open on Sunday.

The Montreal player won the first set in the best-of-five 7-6, but was bounced 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in the next three in a match that took two hours, 51 minutes to play.

Zverev finished with 15 aces and only one double fault. He won 84 per cent of his first serve points, and 56 per cent of his second serve points.

Diallo had 10 aces and five double faults, but only won one of two break points while Zverev won six of eight.

The German ace also won 38 per cent of his points off of returns, while Diallo only won 23 per cent.

Zverev won 18 of 19 service games, while Diallo won 12 of 18.

Zverev will play the winner of a match between Alexei Popyrin of Australia and Alexandre Muller of France.

In a later game, 33-year-old Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia bounced Liam Draxl of Newmarket, Ont., 7-5, 6-0, 6-4 in two hours, 25 minutes.

Dzumhur finished with six aces, 49 winners and 36 unforced errors, compared to Draxl’s seven aces, 23 winners and 41 unforced errors. Both players had four double faults.

Dzumhur saved six of eight break points, while Draxl could only save five of 12. Dzumhur also won 68 per cent of his points on serve and 48 per cent on return, while Draxl won 52 per cent on serve and only 32 per cent on return.

Dzumhur advances to the next round where he’ll face Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina, who got past Zhizhen Zhang of China 6-3, 7-6, 6-3.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 17, 2026.