Damir Dzumhur was a class act, as always, on the court against Alexander Zverev on Friday at Roland Garros. His hospitality also extended to the ball kids who worked the third-round match on Court Philippe-Chatrier. During a break in the action, Dzumhur jogged to catch a ball in the middle of the court. [ALSO LIKE] But a ball boy, from the side of the court, sprinted to the same spot. Collision. Dzumhur, a 26-year-old ATP World Tour professional, was left standing. But the ball boy lied on the red dirt. Talk about a collision course. @DzumhurDamir collides with ball boy during match. #RG18 pic.twitter.com/M5xHLxMlMK — Tennis Channel (@TennisChannel) June 1, 2018 Dzumhur consoled the ball boy, and eventually, however, the...
Fifth-seeded Colombians Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah booked their places in the Roland Garros third round on Friday with a 6-4, 7-6(4) victory over Argentineans Guido Pella and Diego Schwartzman in one hour and 37 minutes. Last year’s semi-finalists will next challenge Wesley Koolhof and Artem Sitak. Cabal and Farah came into the clay-court Grand Slam championship on the back of winning their first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown at Internazionali BNL d’Italia (d. Carreno Busta/Sousa). With a 12-15 record in team finals (9-10 on clay), they have also reached the finals this year at the Australian Open (l. to Marach/Pavic) and the Argentina Open (l. to Molteni/Zeballos). Cabal, 32, reached the 2011 Roland Garros final with Eduardo...
Whatever routines Marco Cecchinato has been following this week in Paris, he should keep doing them. The Italian had never won a Grand Slam match before Roland Garros, and now he's into the fourth round in Paris. Cecchinato beat 10th seed Pablo Carreno Busta 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-3, 6-1 on Friday, converting six of his eight break points to upset the 2017 quarter-finalist. [ALSO LIKE] In February, Carreno Busta had dropped only five games against Cecchinato on clay at the Argentina Open. But much has changed since then for the 25-year-old Italian. Cecchinato won his maiden ATP World Tour title in April at the Gazprom Hungarian Open in Budapest. And in the fourth round, he'll face either eighth seed David Goffin...
Sure, a tidy three-set match that lasted less than two hours would have been nice. Alexander Zverev still could have tied his best Grand Slam result by reaching the fourth round at Roland Garros. But the 21-year-old wouldn't have had to expend so much energy to advance past Bosnian Damir Dzumhur, whom he beat 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6(3), 7-5, saving a match point at 4-5 in the decider, in just under four hours. But, in truth, how long it takes Zverev to advance in Paris doesn't seem to bother him much, at least not now, as the first week of Roland Garros nears its close. “I'm trying to win matches. If it takes me three sets, great. If it takes...
World No. 5 Grigor Dimitrov says he will take time off to reassess his form, following a third-round exit at Roland Garros on Friday. “I definitely need to take some time off now to kind of reassess the whole clay-court season, to be honest,” said Dimitrov, after his 7-6(4), 6-2, 6-4 loss to Fernando Verdasco. “I think that's going to be the No. 1 priority for me now, to kind of step out from tennis for a little bit, [and] try to watch some matches and sort of try to progress somehow. Just get better. “I have always been a positive thinker, and I want to keep that on the same level right now.” [ALSO LIKE] The Bulgarian, who finished...