Dzumhur overcomes scary fall against Mpetshi Perricard to set Alcaraz showdown

Damir Dzumhur suffered what appeared to be a devastating fall in the fourth set of his Roland Garros clash with Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard Wednesday, but regrouped to oust the 31st seed 7-6(4), 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

Dzumhur led by two sets and 4-2 in the third set, but completely lost momentum when Mpetshi Perricard won five consecutive games to lead 1-0 in the fourth set. With his serve under pressure, the No. 69 player in the PIF ATP Rankings Dzumhur tripped while shuffling back to the centre of the court and collapsed in significant pain.

The three-time ATP Tour titlist quickly grabbed his left knee and received treatment at his chair from tournament medical staff, with Mpetshi Perricard looking on. It was unclear if he would continue.

“Regarding the knee, I asked the physio if I just hit [it], if it was just a bruise,” Dzumhur told Alex Corretja in his on-court interview. “If I cannot make it worse, then I can play. They said that nothing is wrong with the knee, it’s just a hit, so I continued to play.”

Dzumhur limped from his chair to continue and held his serve. The former World No. 23 then disappointed the Court Suzanne-Lenglen crowd by earning his third service break of the match, according to Infosys Stats, and closing out the Frenchman.

“I felt stressed in the third set after I had a break up, really. And then in the fourth set, pretty much the same situation,” Dzumhur said. “I actually didn’t know that I was serving for the match, so maybe it was better.”

The 33-year-old will next face second seed and defending champion Carlos Alcaraz. It will be the pair’s first Lexus ATP Head2Head meeting, but they met in the final of an ATP Challenger Tour event in October 2020 in Barcelona, where a 17-year-old Alcaraz rallied from a set down to claim the trophy in three sets.