Stan Wawrinka is out of the tournament, but Jesper de Jong is moving on. Wawrinka had to face Damir Dzumhur from Bosnia and Herzegovina. We have been watching Damir play here for several years and know him as a tenacious player. A nice and skillful player with immense stamina. In other words, a formidable opponent for Wawrinka, who has a strong desire to win the title in Umag. Unfortunately for him Damir put a stop to that. Wawrinka started well and was the first of the two to break serve, but Dzumhur broke back immediately. At 4-4 in the first set, Damir managed to break once more and took the first set 6-4. Wawrinka had some work to do! In the beginning of the second set, however, the title seemed increasingly out of reach. The Swiss made too many unnecessary mistakes, but whenever he looked like hitting a winner, Damir often managed to return it. Dzumhur played with an intensity as if his life depended on it and managed to break Wawrinka twice. Deep balls against the baseline alternated with successful drop shots, ‘saves’ from the backfield that top goalkeepers would be jealous of, in short, the Bosnian brought the whole arsenal into play. The tension among a large part of the audience was visible and, strange as it may sound, (no longer) audible. But then the killer mentality came alive in the three-time Grand Slam winner, and he managed to break back twice in a row. Happy faces in the stands, their idol was about to take control at a score of 4-4 as he could now serve for 5-4. But that went wrong. He lost his service again, allowing Dzumhur to serve out the match at 5-4. However, that also did not happen: Wawrinka showed his winner mentality once again and broke back: 5-5 and serving to make it 6-5. The Bosnian, however, had other plans and proved to be a winner as well. Another break followed and it was once again up to Damir to serve out the match. At a score of 15-30, there was briefly hope for Wawrinka and his fans, but that hope faded away. It was really over now, and Damir Dzumhur is heading to the quarterfinals while Wawrinka, unfortunately for many, is going home. Jesper de Jong achieved a solid victory in his match against Mariano Navone and qualified for the quarter-finals with set scores of 6-3 and 6-4, where he will face the Spaniard Carlos Taberner, who knocked out the defending champion Francisco Cerundolo. In the decisive third set, Cerundolo could serve out at 5-4, but he did not. The tough Spaniard managed to break and then pull the victory towards him (6-7(2), 6-4, and 7-5). Meanwhile, the qualifiers still in the tournament continue to win relentlessly. Earlier, Pablo Llamas Ruiz from Spain defeated the Frenchman Terence Atmane, but his compatriot Titouan Droguet proved too strong for the Czech Vit Kopriva (6-2, 6-3). Both qualifiers will therefore be back in the quarter-finals. Dino Prizmic has so far made optimal use of his wildcard, as the Croatian defeated the Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili (2-6, 6-3, 6-2). In the quarterfinals, he will face the second-seeded Luciano Darderi from Italy. Darderi was the tournament winner in Bastad (Sweden) last Sunday after his victory over Jesper de Jong, and he continues his winning streak here in Umag. The Taiwanese Chun-Hun Tseng lost 7-5 and 6-0 to the Italian. The photo collage below shows images from most of the matches mentioned above.
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