(Toronto) Gabriel Diallo is like a loot bag. It is only seen on special occasions, everyone notices it when it enters a room and no one really knows what is inside. This learned chess player who could speak Russian could have obtained a master’s degree in almost any field, but he preferred to play tennis.
Diallo is different. He is of his contemporaries and his rivals on the ATP circuit. The Quebecer isn’t just tall, at 6’8″. He is also extremely talented, curious and thoughtful. When asked a question, it borrows seconds from time to deliver a sensible answer.
It was only recently that he realized that he detonated from the mass. “In greatness, around 17, 18, when I got to college. In terms of talent too, ”he says, comfortably seated in the media center of Sobeys Stadium, in the context of an interview with La Presse, Sunday morning.
He had just returned from a promotional obligation. That’s why he showed up with a racket in his hand.
But if Diallo is unique, it is thanks to his desire to be more than a tennis player. The 21-year-old owes that motivation to his parents. “They didn’t want tennis to be my identity, because it’s going to stop at some point,” he explains, wearing a black Adidas branded jersey.
He is also an avid reader and a great music lover. “My parents made me read, a lot! I have also always listened to a lot of music. »
When he was at the University of Kentucky, the Montrealer was studying finance. Another area he is interested in. “Outside of tennis, it has always been important to my parents that I develop more assets and it has created a curiosity in me, which means that I no longer need my parents to be curious. If I’m intrigued by an author or a book interests me, I’ll go find it. It’s very natural,” said the world’s 140th racquet.
Diallo was born to a Guinean father and a Ukrainian mother. His parents met in Russia, during their studies, and they then moved to Montreal a few years before the birth of their son.
“It’s a nice diversity, that’s for sure. And also it helps me because I speak Russian and people don’t know it. I can hear people talking Russian and act like I don’t understand anything, but secretly I understand everything,” he says proudly.
The ties he maintains with his family are essential. “Where we come from is what makes us who we are,” he recalls. His maternal grandmother lives in the family home, in the Quebec metropolis, and his family on the paternal side follows him from Africa.
Even though his family tree extends its roots to two other continents, he finds in the Guinean and Ukrainian cultures of his predecessors a common factor: sharing. “They’re very family-oriented, sharing-oriented. They have the same values, both on my mother’s and my father’s side of the family. I try to take the best of both worlds, and that gives me who I am today. »
Diallo is part of this new generation of promising players trained by Tennis Canada. If he is the 140th player in the world at 21 and aspires to the top 100 before long, it is certainly because he is endowed with a talent that no one doubts anymore. Him first.
It was only during his time in the NCAA that he realized he had the potential to earn a living from tennis, especially thanks to the intervention of two teammates in Kentucky.
“In my freshman year, I was playing fourth [fourth best player on the team] and then I wasn’t performing very well. I was not meeting my own expectations, he recalls. And at one point, two of my teammates sat me down after a bad loss to say, ‘I don’t know if you realize, but you have potential and talent that we don’t have. . It opened my eyes. »
So never in his early teens did he think he had the talent to even dream of a career in the world of tennis.
“No, no, no,” he replied, shaking his head hard enough to make the many gold chains move around his neck.
Until a few months ago, his plan was to finish his studies. “I was going to graduate from college after four years, maybe five, and do a master’s degree and quietly see how it was going step by step. Things happened much faster than I could have hoped. »
He is now part of the draw of a Masters 1000 tournament for the first time.
“To be among the top 150 players in the world, in any discipline, is a privilege,” Diallo said. So I decided to work and do something with this talent. »
He therefore strives to develop his “arsenal of tools as much as possible”, on and off the court, because tennis is part of his life, of course, but tennis is not his whole life.
