Diego Elahi Galán, DE, as he is called by the initials of his two names, will face this Saturday in the third round of Roland Garros, nothing more and nothing less, than the world number one, Novak Djokovic. The one from Bucaramanga was re-fished from the previous phase, in which he fell in the third round against the Swiss Laaksonen, to cover one of the three casualties that occurred in the men's draw before starting the tournament. And it is clear that he seized his opportunity. In the first round he beat the British Norrie in five sets and in the second, the American Sandgren in three. Now a meeting comes to him that he, without fear, qualifies as “one more”. “He is one more rival. Surely he has some weakness, I don't know,” he says gallantly.
The fact is that DE Galán's story is one of the most talked about in the tournament. It was his brother, Xando, who accompanies him in this championship instead of his usual coach, his father, Santos (“It's good for him to rest, because for him so much traveling is hard all year, although he supports me in the distance”, says Diego), the one who took the ballot with his name in the draw to decide which qualy players entered the draw (the others were Marc Pollmans and Jason Jung, already eliminated). “It was a bit funny, I was stunned for having lost in qualifying and luck came out this time “, says Galán, who asks you for help when you need support in matches. “I usually tell him to encourage me more, because when your legs or head fail, it is very good for someone to push you a little, I asked him to speak to me, not to tell me what to do.” Now you are confident in your possibilities: “It is the first time that I have won matches in a Grand Slam, but I have been doing things well, that has given me confidence. I'm starting to win more games than I didn't before and against higher-level rivals and that gives me confidence. It motivates me to keep working, growing, learning. What has been achieved is through work and discipline, I have the potential to go far “.
DE, 24 years old and 153rd in the world, is the first Colombian to reach the third round in Paris since Santiago Giraldo in 2012 and is in a position he dreamed of: “I knew that if I entered that way I had to take advantage of the opportunity, that not everyone can do it. I was a little discouraged for having lost the 'quali' but I had to regain the good feelings and go back to racing “.