Professional Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic, who is considered to be ranked Number 1 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals, defeated 18-year-old prodigy Dino Prizmic on 14 January, the first day of the Australian Open after the longest first-round match in the champion’s grand slam career.
A challenging opponent forced the ten-time Australian Open champion to play his best tennis in a physical match, and Djokovic prevailed 6-2 6-7 6-3 6-4 in just over four hours, reaching one step closer to his goal of obtaining a record-breaking 25th grand slam title.
Midway through the third set, Prizmic, the 178th-ranked player in the world, crossed Djokovic to take the lead, raising the possibility of an upset. After that however, the 36-year-old responded in a manner characteristic of his playing style, taking the next eight games to shut out the youngster and eventually crossing the finishing line to his victory.
Prizmic made his debut against Djokovic in the very first round of the men’s singles matches for the Australian Open tournament at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia. Although Prizmic lost the match, his tremendous determination and incredible skills made Djokovic applaud with the whole live audience as he walked off the court.
The 10-time Australian Open winner in a post-match interview by Eurosport expressed how at one time it felt as if he was playing against himself in the mirror. Djokovic revealed that he told the youngster during the post-match handshake that he should be proud of himself and that he deserves every applause that he got from the crowd due to his unbelievable performance.
"𝙄𝙩 𝙛𝙚𝙡𝙩 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙮𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙛!" 🪞
Novak Djokovic has nothing but praise for 18-year-old Dino Prizmic 🙌@DjokerNole | @Babsschett | #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/9tOpAFu9C1
— Eurosport (@eurosport) January 14, 2024
Who is Dino Prizmic?
Dino Prizmic is a Croatian tennis player born on August 5, 2005 who has found quite major successes in the court at such a young age. On October 23, 2023, Prizmic attained a career-high ATP singles ranking of No. 155, and then on January 16, 2023, he attained a career-high ATP doubles ranking of No. 1444.
On March 20, 2023, Prizmic, then ranked No. 381 in the world, won his fifth ITF title in Poreč, Croatia, which made him the best under-18 player in the entire world.
Prizmic overcame Mariano Navone, Duje Ajduković and Aziz Dougaz to qualify for his first senior Grand Slam at the Australian Open of 2024. Over the course of his four-hour encounter with the best in the entire world, Prizmic saved five match points and took 16 games before losing in four sets.
Djokovic hurt his wrist during his 2024 United Cup debut, which allowed Prizmic to keep his morale up while trying to perform a historic upset against the champion who has not lost an Australian Open match since 2016.
Respect🤝@AustralianOpen | #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/Hc7yvdDm03
— ATP Tour (@atptour) January 14, 2024
Who is Novak Djokovic?
Novak Djokovic has held the top spot in tennis men’s singles at the end of the year a record eight times and for a record 407 weeks in a record 13 separate years. He also simultaneously holds many more records such as for the most Grand Slam men’s singles victories with 24, including a record ten at the Australian Open.
His extremely successful career has seen him win 98 singles titles which include a record 71 big titles from 24 majors, 40 masters and 7 ATP finals, the later two of which are records by themselves.
The only person to have won the last four major championships simultaneously on three distinct surfaces is also Novak Djokovic. He is the only player to complete a career Golden Masters, which he has actually managed to do twice, and the only guy to accomplish a triple career Grand Slam in singles.
At the age of 20, he broke the legends Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer’s dominating record of 11 straight major victories in 2008 when he won his first major at the Australian Open. Fans and commentators went on to refer to Djokovic, Federer, and Rafael Nadal as the “Big Three” by 2010 since he began to build his own name and became much better than the rest of the competition.
After defeating Federer and Nadal 10-1 and taking home three majors and a then-record five Masters championships in 2011, Djokovic soared to the top of the rankings for the first time. For the remainder of the decade, he continued to be the most successful male tennis player.
For the Australian Open 2024, Djokovic explained how he felt under the weather for the last four or five days, as understood by the condition of his voice. However, he took nothing from his opponent, praising how he felt amazing to have faced such a challenge from Prizmic.
