WITH all the ATP Tour and WTA Tour tournaments on hiatus for the time being, Draft Central will take a look at various nations across the globe and analyse how the top players from that nation are performing. Our next nation is Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Top ATP player: Damir Dzumhur
Rank: 197 (as of March 16, 2020)
Age: 27
Points: 524
Tournaments played: 30

The top player from Bosnia-Herzegovina is about to turn 28, and he is far from a slouch having produced a really solid career to-date over the past nine years since turning professional in 2011. He does not have the height and therefore serving impact that others have, standing at just 175cm, but he has made more than $4 million USD prize money over his career and run at nearly 50 per cent win-loss across the time. He reached a career high 23rd in the world back in July, 2018 and has won three titles over his time on tour.

Those three titles propelled Dzumhur into the top 25, with wins in 2017 in Russia, taking out titles in Moscow and St Petersburg, and then claiming a grass title at Antalya 12 months later. He has not won anything in the past season and a half, but he is ever dangerous when at his best. He won both his matches at the Davis Cup, including against the in-form South African, Lloyd Harris in his most recent start, and took a set off former Australian Open winner, Stan Wawrinka in an unlucky first round clash. Outside of the 98th ranked Harris, he is yet to win inside the top 100 this year, but is someone no player on tour wants to take lightly.

Other notable Bosnia-Herzegovina ATP players: Mirza Basic (#309), Nerman Fatic (#367), Aldin Setkic (#487), Tomislav Brkic (#596)

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Top WTA player: Dea Herzelas
Rank: 393 (as of 23/03/2020)
Age: 23
Points: 114
Tournaments played: 16

The WTA Tour is not littered with a heap of Bosnia-Herzegovina players, but Dea Herzelas is the pick of the listed trio, just inside the top 400. She is still 23-years-old and while she spends her time on the ITF Tour, she has won eight of a possible 12 matches this year, with 213 wins for 138 losses overall in her time. She narrowly missed out on a title at Stuttgart in January this year, losing to 476th ranked Bulgarian, Julia Terziyska in the final of the 15K event. She has reached finals in Russia and Portugal the last two seasons, having not won a tour title since April, 2017 when she saluted in Cairo on clay.

There is not much experience on the WTA Tour for Herdzelas, who has a career-high singles ranking of 329th. She has played doubles as well, ranked inside the top 600, and there are only two other players for her nation on tour. Nefisa Berberovic is the other player ranked inside the top 1000 – at 604 – and she is just 20-years-old as a player of the future.

Other notable Bosnia-Herzegovina WTA players: Nefisa Berberovic (#604)

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Summary:

Bosnia-Herzegovina is not a nation you often think of as being blessed with copious amounts of tennis talent, but Dzumhur has been a shining light over the past few years. While the women’s side is not as highly ranked in the world, they do have some up-and-coming players on the ITF Tour, and could be a country to watch in the future.