Dzumhur scheduled a duel with Richard Gasquet

Damir Dzumhur reached the second round of the Srpska Open by winning against Liam Broady with 2:0 (6-3, 6-0). Dzumhur will next meet French veteran Richard Gasquet. Obviously in a good mood after his match with the Brit, the tennis player from Bosnia and Herzegovina underlined:

“This triumph means a lot to me. I haven’t played for a couple of months. I dropped in ATP rankings and Banjaluka is a good opportunity to improve my ranking. I cherish positive memories from Banjaluka. Especially from last year’s tournament. Honestly, I wasn’t sure whether I would be able to play good tennis again”, Damir Dzumhur added.

The tennis player then commented on the match against the Brit.

“I was a bit nervous at the start of the match but that’s not unusual for the start of the tournament. I always have performance anxiety and I’m afraid at the start of the match. Maybe the start itself wasn’t so good but when I relaxed, it looked much better. I solved a match quite quickly”.

Richard Gasquet is Dzumhur’s next opponent. The experienced Frenchman has been much more successful than Dzumhur until now.

“That match can be very long. I played against him on two occasions and didn’t win a set. He is 38, still plays good tennis and he’s a very difficult opponent.

Bosnia and Herzegovina Davis Cup captain  Zoran Zrnic has been on the practice court with Dzumhur in Banjaluka.

“Our Davis Cup captain is supportive of every member of the national team. He supervises our work, and supports us not only when we compete in the Davis Cup, but at the tournaments in the region as well. I arrived on Friday so we trained together here and we also practiced together in Belgrade not long ago. Zoran is a dedicated coach and it helps a lot”.

Damir Dzumhur also discussed his plans for the future.

“In the next four months I don’t have any points to defend and I said before that my goal is to be in the top 150 in the world. I have things to improve in my game. Challenger tournaments are not easy either; many young players are there and their tennis is really good. I want to advance and prove that I’m part of the tennis elite”, Dzumhur explained.