Damir Dzumhur collided with the ball boy at the French Open. (Source: Eurosport Screenshot)
During his third round match at the French Open, Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina collided with a ball boy which resulted in the youngster losing his balance and going down. Playing first on Court Philippe-Chatrier, both Dzumhur and the ball boy went for an aerial ball and both had eyes on the ball which resulted in the incident.
The incident occured in the fourth set when Dzumhur served at 0-1 and 40-15 against Alexander Zverev of Germany. The World No 29 led by two sets to one at the time having won the second and third set (6-3, 6-4) after dropping the first set (3-6). Zverev’s groundstroke went long and as Dzumhur tried to send it back, his forehand produced a mishit and went into the sky. Both went to catch the ball and clashed mid-way into the court. As the ball boy went down in a heap, Dzumhur was clearly taken aback by the incident and helped the kid up and took him to the side of the court. The chair umpire, too, came down to check on the ball kid before the youngster walked off to the side for some attention.
It was an accident waiting to happen, but men’s 26th seed Damir Dzumhur quickly embraced the ballboy. There’s 30 minutes to go until our day 6 #FrenchOpen coverage. Live stream via @SBSSport & @SBSOnDemand from 10pm(AEST) or watch on @SBS from 10:30pm(AEST) #SBSTennis #FrenchOpen pic.twitter.com/ehS1bzY0Zb
— SBS Sport (@SBSSport) 1 June 2018
In two results, at the time, from the French Open on Day 6, Daria Kastkina beat Maria Sakkari 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 and Madison Keys got the better of Naomi Osaka 6-1, 7-6. In the doubles, Indian pairing of Yuki Bhambri and Divij Sharan went down to Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic 5-7, 3-6.
Later in the day, Australian Open champion Caroline Wozniacki faces Pauline Parmentier, Lucas Pouille goes up against Karen Khachanov and Sloane Stephens will square off against Camila Giorgi. On Court Suzanne-Lenglen, Novak Djokovic will hope to keep his winning run going against Roberto Bautista Agut, David Goffin faces Frenchman Gael Monfils and Petra Kvitova gets play to a close against Anett Kontaveit. On Court 1, Grigor Dimitrov faces Fernando Verdasco, Elina Svitolina will face Mihaela Buzarnescu and Dominic Thiem will look to fend off the challenge posed by Matteo Berrettini.