Gabriel Diallo was reeling, committing error after error in a match where he clearly had the upper hand.
The Montreal native then came out in the decisive third set, cleaned up his play and pushed Canada into the Davis Cup Finals group stage on Saturday.
Diallo defeated Hong Seong-chan 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 to give Canada a 3-1 victory over South Korea in the best-of-five qualifier before 1,925 fans inside Montreal’s IGA Stadium. The 22-year-old committed 53 errors in the first two sets but limited himself to 11 in the third.
“I gave myself a pep talk in the bathroom [between sets],” Diallo half-heartedly
