Tennis Player at French Open Didn't Realize He Won His Match

That feeling when you don't know you've won.
Damir Džumhur didn't know he won his French Open match.
Damir Džumhur didn't know he won his French Open match. / Screengrab Twitter @rolandgarros

Sometimes, athletes are in such a zone and so engrossed in a game or match that they almost forget where they are in the moment.

That occurred at the French Open on Wednesday—to an extreme. Bosnian tennis player Damir Džumhur was so focused on his second-round match against Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard that he didn't realize that it was over—and that he had emerged victorious.

Džumhur, up 5-4 in the fourth set and serving for the match, hit a forehand shot deep towards the back of the baseline, Mpetshi Perricard returned it long, ending the match.

The crowd let out a roar as Džumhur gathered the tennis balls on his side of the court and hit them to the other side of the court for what he thought was Mpetshi Perricard's ensuing service game. As Džumhur heard the chair umpire announcing his victory, he had an amusing moment of realization and then jogged towards the net to shake hands with Mpetshi Perricard.

Ignorance may indeed have been bliss in this case, as Džumhur indicated after the match.

"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 told the ATP Tour's website. “I actually didn’t know that I was serving for the match, so maybe it was better."

With the win, Džumhur advanced to the third round, where he will face four-time major winner Carlos Alcaraz.


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Tim Capurso
TIM CAPURSO

Tim Capurso is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Prior to joining SI in November 2023, he wrote for RotoBaller and ClutchPoints, where he was the lead editor for MLB, college football and NFL coverage. A lifelong Yankees and Giants fan, Capurso grew up just outside New York City and now lives near Philadelphia. When he's not writing, he enjoys reading, exercising and spending time with his family, including his three-legged cat Willow, who, unfortunately, is an Eagles fan.