Richard Gasquet was eliminated in the round of 16 of the Banja Luka tournament by Bosnian Damir Dzumhur, 202nd in the world, after a 2:42 battle.
Richard Gasquet’s counter remains stuck at 597 victories on the ATP circuit. The Biterrois could mathematically dream of the 600th this week on the clay courts of Banja Luka, but he took the door in the round of 16. Opposed to the Bosnian player Damir Dzumhur, who fell to 202nd place in the world after being 23rd in July 2023, and who played in front of his publicRichard Gasquet lost 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 after battling for 2:42 in a disjointed game.
Faced with this player against whom he had never lost a set in two confrontations, the Frenchman was disappointed. Broken from the start of the match, he lost this first set, where the two players exchanged breaks (two on each side) between 2-3 and 4-5. But Gasquet woke up and had a much better second set, with breaks at 1-0 and 3-0 on three occasions, to win it 6-1 and tie it at one set everywhere.
Gasquet had a break lead in the third set
Everything was decided in the third set, where Gasquet was the first to take the opposing service, but Dzumhur managed to unbreak him at 3-2 on his fifth opportunity. The Frenchman then missed a break point 4-4 and the two players finally decided on the tie-break. A decisive game where the Bosnian led 5-2 then 6-3, before concluding on his first match point.
The 598th career victory will therefore perhaps wait for Madrid next week for Gasquet. As for Dzumhur, he will challenge Andrey Rublev or Juan Pablo Varillas. Also note this afternoon the qualification of the seeded n°4, Miomir Kecmanovic, to the detriment of the Jordanian Abedallah Shelbayh (267th).
