Former Challenger footballer Damir Dzumhur resumes career at that level: ‘I’m not done yet’ | ATP Tour

Features Player

Former footballer Dzumhur former ballkid Dzumhur resumes career at that level: ‘I’m not done yet’

The former World No. 23 returned to the Top 100 on Monday for the first time since 2020.

August 14, 2024

Damir Dzumhur was a perennial Top 100 player in the PIF ATP Rankings from 2015-2020. He reached as high as World No. 23 and won three tour-level trophies in a two-year span. When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020 and stopped the tour, Dzumhur could not have imagined that he would need to wait four years to return to the Top 100.

“At that moment, it’s not easy to accept,” Dzumhur told ATPtour.com. “Knowing that you’ve been in the Top 100 for almost six years, you play in high-level tournaments, you play Grand Slams and then you’re not there, you have to play qualifiers, you play a lot of Challengers. [You think]’I’ll be back,’ but it’s not that easy. Then certain things happen, you can’t perform at the highest level, you’re not there and it’s not easy to accept.”

The 32-year-old player, who hails from Bosnia-Herzegovina, has been quietly rising on the ATP Challenger Tour, where he has won three titles this year: Barletta, Italy; Ostrava, Czech Republic; Zagreb, Croatia.

Never give up hope 💪

Damir Dzumhur came back from 1-5 down in the third set to beat Squire 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 and take the title in Ostrava!#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/QJc5RS2URt

– ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) April 28, 2024

One of six players to win three Challenger titles this season, it was that level that first exposed Dzumhur in the tournament when he was nine years old.

Dzumhur grew up volunteering as a soccer kid at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Sarajevo, the city of his birth. In 2003, the first year of this tournament, Dzumhur was fetching balls from 16-year-old Richard Gasquet, who managed to win the tournament in a record-breaking manner. To this day, Gasquet is recorded in Challenger history as the youngest player to win the most titles at that level. The Frenchman won at Montauban last year.

“I said, ‘Wow! Me winning the Challenger in seven years? That’s not easy!’” Dzumhur said with a laugh. “But it was good to see that.”

Ironically, Dzumhur and Gasquet have played each other four times at all levels, including this year’s Manama Challenger semi-final. “One time when we were practicing, I said to him, ‘Do you know that I was your football boy in Sarajevo?'” he recalled.

Dzumhur saw several other stars before they became household names and climbed inside the Top 10, including Tomas Berdych, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Ernests Gulbis and Janko Tipsarevic.

Dick Norman, who reached the Top 10 twice, beat Dzumhur in 2003, the same year the Belgian reached the final and lost to Gasquet.

“I had the opportunity to bat for the first time with a professional player – a player who was in the Top 100 – and I had the opportunity to ask if I could hit a few balls with him. He was kind, so we did,” said Dzumhur. “That time when I was a ballkid player was the best time of the year for me. Because you could see the best players.

“It was a happy time for us kids. I am very grateful that I had the opportunity to do it. It’s every young tennis player’s dream to meet other professional tennis players.”

Dzumhur has now built his own professional career spanning 12 years. And after struggling for four years, he climbed back into the Top 100 on Monday for the first time since February 10, 2020.

“Sometimes I felt like my game was there, but I was missing a piece of the puzzle and then there were difficult times, especially 2022,” said the World No. 100, who retired in the final round of Wimbledon qualifying for this. year with a torn abdominal oblique muscle.

“I got down to 260 at one point and I was thinking, ‘What’s next? Will I come back or will it be a struggle?’”

Dzumhur’s career-best stretch came in 2017-2018, when he won the ATP 250 title in St. Petersburg, Moscow and Antalya. The touring veteran hopes his recent form is just the beginning of a turnaround.

“I’m not done yet. This is not where I want to stop. I want to go slowly,” said Dzumhur. “I’m definitely very motivated [knowing] that I’m back in the Top 100. It’s really nice to see your name among the top 100 players.

“At 32 years old, I still feel happy. In fact, this is the year I feel the best I have physically in the past few years. I don’t think 32 is old for tennis and I still think I can prove something in tennis. I am sure I can do more and get better results.”