Gabriel Diallo, teammate Liam Draxl first Canadians to exit Australian Open

Gabriel Diallo started strong, but he was no match for the third-seeded Alexander Zverev of Germany in the opening round of men's singles at the Australian Open on Sunday in Melbourne.

The Montreal player won the first set in the best-of-five 7-6, but was bounced 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 in the next three in a match that took two hours 51 minutes.

Zverev finished with 15 aces and only one double fault. He won 84 per cent of his first serve points, and 56 per cent of his second serve points.

Diallo had 10 aces and five double faults, but only won one of two break points while Zverev won six of eight.

The German ace also won 38 per cent of his points off of returns, while Diallo only won 23 per cent.

Zverev won 18 of 19 service games, while Diallo won 12 of 18.

Zverev will play the winner of a match between Alexei Popyrin of Australia and Alexandre Muller of France.

Liam Draxl of Newmarket, Ont., also dropped his opening match with a 7-5, 6-0, 6-4 loss to Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia.

Four other Canadians are in action Sunday: Marina Stakusic (8:10 p.m. ET) and Victoria Mboko (9:20 p.m.) who is seeded 17th on the women’s side, while No. 7 seed Felix Auger-Aliassime (7 p.m.) and Denis Shapovalov, seeded 21st, play first-round matches in the men’s tournament.

Seventh seed Jasmine Paolini got the dominant start she wanted, defeating Aliaksandra Sasnovich 6-1, 6-2 in just over an hour at the Rod Laver Arena.

Paolini took the first set in just 27 minutes on the main show court at Melbourne Park, giving the crowd what they wanted as the first Grand Slam of the season got underway.

Elsewhere, No. 12 Elina Svitolina defeated Cristina Bucsa 6-4, 6-1, and Maria Sakkari won over Leolia Jeanjean 6-4, 6-2.

In other early matches, No. 20 Flavio