Richard Gasquet, 42nd in the world, was eliminated by Bosnian Damir Dzumhur, former N.23 who fell to 202nd place, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7/3) Thursday in the second round of the ATP 250 tournament on clay court in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. There is therefore no longer any French in the running since Grégoire Barrère (57th in the world) was sharply beaten earlier by the Serbian Dusan Lajovic (70th) 6-3, 6-0. The latter will face in the quarters his compatriot, the world No.1 Novak Djokovic.
Dzumhur will have a lot to do in the next round against Russian Andrey Rublev, 6th in the world and recent winner of the Masters 1000 in Monte-Carlo, who easily defeated Peruvian Juan Pablo Varillas (92nd) 6-2, 6-2. During a balanced first set between Gasquet and Dzumhur, each player successively took the service of the other until 4-4. The Bosnian again broke the Frenchman before confirming his face-off to take the first set 6-4.
Gasquet replied by making the entry break in the second set, then flew to equalize at one set everywhere (6-1) thanks in particular to his efficiency in return of service. The Frenchman took the Bosnian’s face-off at the start of the third set, but the latter managed to unbreak (3-3).
Pushed to a decisive game, Gasquet was too feverish on his first serve (54% success), unlike Dzumhur (76%) who won 7-6 (7/3) after 2h40 of play .
Winner of the Auckland tournament (hard) at the start of the year, the 36-year-old Frenchman has continued since early eliminations like in Monte-Carlo ten days ago where he was eliminated from the start by the Austrian Dominic Thiem (106th in the world). Winner of three ATP tournaments in his career, Dzumhur, 30, was the 23rd player in the world in 2018.
A little earlier, Barrère had also taken the door of the tournament scheduled in the capital of the Bosnian Serb entity to replace that of Belgrade, relocated this season due to modernization works. The 29-year-old’s duel against Lajovic, 32, quickly turned in favor of the Serbian, former world No.23.
In the second set, the French did not exist, scoring only four points to cash a bicycle wheel and bow in 1 h 04 min of play.
