Darko Bojanovic and Phil Dimon will be going head-to-head for the first time in their careers when they clash in round one of the $15,000 ITF Futures event in Kampala, Uganda on Tuesday.
This is a big opportunity in the professional careers for both players, as even Bojanovic–despite being the No. 7 seed–owns just 11 lifetime wins in the main draws of Futures tournaments. The 21-year-old from Bosnia and Herzegovina, who is 11-40 for his career, recently enjoyed one of his best-ever results at a clay-court Futures event in Tunisia. He got a retirement in the final round of qualifying, got another retirement in the main draw, and then lost to Jordi Samper-Montana by a respectable 6-2, 6-4 scoreline. Samper-Montana is ranked 479th, once peaked in the top 200, and qualified for the main draw of the 2016 French Open.
Bojanovic appears to be a borderline doubles specialist, with 24 career match wins at the Futures level and one title last year in Tunisia.
Dimon is making his professional debut at 37 years old. A solid junior USTA career and No. 1 singles duty for high-school powerhouse Westminster (Atlanta, Ga.) helped Dimon earn a scholarship at Division III Williams College (Williamstown, Mass.), which won back-to-back National Championships in 2001 and 2002 during his tenure.
Dimon’s tennis game–especially on clay–is in the midst of a resurgence thanks to work stints in El Salvador and (currently) Uganda. Following a rigorous week of training on green clay in Naples, Fla., he received a wild card into qualifying this past weekend and made the most of it with straight-set routs of Congolese veteran Raphae Tsongo Pilipili and India’s Prashant Sawat.
Dimon is an obvious underdog on paper (he has opened around 8-1 or 9-1 odds to win), as Bojanovic has youth and professional experience on his side. But it could be competitive, because the world No. 1131’s singles success has been occasional at best. Moreover, Dimon is an “adopted” Ugandan with home-court advantage and will have “tons” of fans coming out on Tuesday–conveniently a work holiday in Kampala.
Earlier today our adopted Ugandan brother Phil Dimon🇺🇸(2nd from right) won his 2nd game of the #UGProCircuit2018🎾
The wildcard is certainly making the most of his debut in an international pro circuit tournament#TeamUganda🇺🇬 pic.twitter.com/OP2vsWDt7h
— Uganda Tennis Associationá… á… á… á… á… á… á… á… á… á… á… á… á… á… á… á… á… á… á… á… á… á… á… á… (@UgandaTennis) April 30, 2018
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who ya got?
Ricky, you’re covering it all these days! How is Phil related to you?
brother!
If he is the same brother who is a Rafa fan, I’ll root for him. 🙂
he wore the Vamos Rafa shirt to his first match and they made him change because the logo was too big. haha.
I’ll root for him!
Vamos Phil! 💪
This is, honestly, the match that we have ALL been waiting for! Phil’s determined training in Naples, along with his Westminster prep school experience in Atlanta, make him the favorite…in 3.
That’s awesome Ricky. For some reason I thought you were older. Tho I still predict you’re the older brother. All this traveling you do had me guessing you’re past 50 and living the good life off your investments
Dimon in straights!
By far the best tennis reporting I have read all year! It’s Macon or it’s Bacon baby!
I give Phil a lot of credit for chasing down his dream of becoming a pro tennis player.
He is a winner no matter what happens on court Tuesday against the youngster.
Phil is playing!
Live score:
http://live.itftennis.com/en/live-scores/?tourkey=M-FU-UGA-01A-2018