Former Kentucky tennis star Gabriel Diallo pulls off first-round upset at French Open

A former Kentucky Wildcat is moving on at Rolland Garros. Gabriel Diallo won his first-round match at the French Open, beating 18-seed Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina in an upset in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3, 6-4. On Thursday, he’ll play either Marcos Giron (United States) or Tallon Griekspoor (The Netherlands).

Diallo, a native of Montreal, Canada, played for Kentucky from 2020 to 2022, leading the Cats to an NCAA Championship match appearance in 2022. Today’s win is his first at Rolland Garros and marks the third straight Grand Slam in which he’s won his first match. He advanced to the third round of the 2024 US Open and the second round of the 2025 Australian Open.

Diallo now has three top-20 wins in his career and two this season. Earlier this year, he beat No. 16 Grigor Dimitrov as a lucky loser to advance to the quarterfinals at the ATP Masters 1000 event in Madrid. He’s currently ranked No. 54 in the ATP Rankings, over 100 spots higher than this time last year, when he qualified for his first Grand Slam Main Draw appearance at the 2024 French Open.

SE VA UNA CARTA LATINOAMERICANA 😩

Francisco Cerúndolo se vio sorprendido por Gabriel Diallo por 7-5, 6-3, 6-4 en el debut de Roland Garros: el argentino había llegado a octavos de final en 2023 y 2024 en París #RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/BioWxg9YOo

— Match Tenis (@MatchTenis) May 26, 2025

Congrats to Gabriel. Here’s a breakdown of today’s match from UK Athletics:

An All-American and NCAA Singles Quarterfinalist during his time in Lexington, Diallo seized control late in the opening frame, turning a 5-5 deadlock into a 7-5 set victory. The Canadian recovered from a 0-30 deficit in the 11^th game before breaking Cerundolo in the subsequent game.

Despite falling behind a break in the early stages of set two, Diallo immediately responded by breaking back and forcing Cerundolo into an extended service game two games later. The power-serving Diallo kept the pressure going by only dropping three points on serve for the remainder of the set, while also finding a second break of serve to take a two sets to love lead.

In the third set, Diallo continued to control the match by only dropping five service points in what would become the final frame. The two players traded serve until the seventh game, when Diallo was able to win four out of five points to claim an advantage he would not relinquish. In the tenth game of the third set, Diallo won the first three points of the game and, on his second match point, delivered his 27^th winner of the match to advance to the second round at Roland Garros for the first time in his career. In the end, Diallo only faced one break point all match and was able to nearly 80 percent of his first serve points.