Canada's Diallo out of Wimbledon after five-set loss to Italy's Sonego

Canada's Gabriel Diallo is out of the Wimbledon men's draw after a marathon five-set loss to Italy's Lorenzo Sonego in second-round action Thursday.

Diallo twice came back from a set down before losing 7-6 (4), 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (6), 6-2 in a match that took four hours 23 minutes to complete.

Sonego, who improved to 2-0 against Diallo, scored an early break to go up 2-0 in the final set.

Diallo got the break back to cut Sonego's lead to 3-2, but the Italian won against serve in the next game and again to clinch the match.

Diallo had been broken just once over the previous four sets.

Canada's Auger-Aliassime beats Prizmic to advance to third round at Wimbledon

Diallo's loss leaves fellow Montreal native Felix Auger-Aliassime as the lone Canadian left in singles competition. The third seed is scheduled to face American Michael Zheng in a third-round match Friday.

In first-round women's doubles competition at the grass-court Grand Slam, Leylah Fernandez of Laval, Que., and Kazakhstan's Yulia Putinseva fell 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 to third seeds Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan and Aleksandra Krunic of Serbia.

Defending champion Iga Swiatek cleared a potentially dangerous early hurdle with ease as she defeated former world number one Karolina Pliskova to reach Round 3 on Thursday.

Czech 34-year-old Pliskova, back on the ‌rise after an ankle injury almost ended her career, landed some heavy artillery on Centre Court but was no match for Swiatek who won 6-1 6-3.

Swiatek, aiming to break the so-called champion's curse and become ​the first woman for a decade to retain the ​Wimbledon crown, looked sharp in the sunshine, taking the opening set in 25 minutes before being forced to work a bit harder.

She ​has now reached the last-32 stage at 26