Gabriel Diallo may have found his new favourite surface.
The Canadian picked up another win on grass on Tuesday, beating Serbia's Laslo Djere 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the Round of 16 at the Mallorca Championships.
Diallo scored his second break of the match to go up 5-3 in the third set, then set up match point with back-to-back aces before wrapping up the win in one hour 47 minutes.
The 23-year-old sixth seed won 83 per cent of first-serve points and had 10 aces while saving three of the four break points he faced.
Diallo, who entered the tournament with a career-high No. 41 ranking, is expected to break into the top 40 after this tournament.
He will next face fourth seed Tallon Griekspoor of the Netherlands. Griekspoor defeated Diallo in the second round of this year's French Open in the only other match between the players.
Diallo, who picked up his first ATP Tour tournament win earlier in the grass-court season at the Libema Open in the Netherlands, is preparing for his first appearance in the Wimbledon main draw after falling in qualifying at the past two events.
He has played in three straight Grand Slam main draws since losing in the second round of qualifying at the All England Club in 2024.
Fellow Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime also advanced to the quarterfinals with a 7-5, 6-3 win over France's Arthur Rinderknech.
Auger-Aliassime, who had a bye in the first round, picked up his break of the match on a Rinderknech double-fault to go up 5-3 in the second set, then served out to wrap up the match in just under one hour, 53 minutes.
The 24-year-old world No. 27 will next face Serbia's Hamad Medjedovic.
Auger-Aliassime is seeking grass-court momentum in Mallorca as he heads into his sixth Wimbledon main draw looking for a better result at the All England Club. He has been eliminated in the first round at the last three editions of the grass-court Grand Slam after reaching the quarterfinals in 2021.
Meanwhile, it's next stop: Wimbledon for Leylah Fernandez.
The Canadian exited her final grass-court tuneup in the Round of 16 at the Bad Homburg Open following a 7-6 (8), 7-6 (6) loss to second-seeded Jasmine Paolini of Italy.
Fernandez fired seven aces but made four double-faults in the loss as each player converted five break points during the tightly contested match.
Paolini will next face seventh-seeded Ukrainian Elina Svitolina or Brazil's Beatriz Haddad Maia in the quarterfinals.
Fernandez, of Laval, Que., awaits play at Wimbledon, where the main draw begins Monday.
--with files from The Canadian Press
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