Croatian tennis player Dino Prizmic continues to shine, carrying his outstanding form from Madrid onto the clay courts of the Rome Masters.

After recording the first Top 10 victory of his career at the previous Masters 1000 event in Madrid, where he defeated American Ben Shelton, Prizmic has continued his remarkable momentum in Rome.

He first stormed through the qualifying rounds without dropping a single set, before maintaining the same rhythm in the opening round, where he comfortably defeated Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics, the world No. 57, 6-4, 6-3.

In the second round, he faced Novak Djokovic on a tournament the Serbian legend has won six times, but Dino showed no trace of excessive sporting respect. On the contrary, he appeared inspired to produce his very best tennis against, as he himself says, his idol.

The result was the biggest victory of his career so far — the legendary Djokovic fell after a three-set comeback, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.

“He definitely played high-level tennis today. I told him at the net that his forehand has improved a lot. Whatever he has been doing with his team is clearly working well. He just needs to keep going,” Djokovic said after the match. It was not the first time the Serbian star had spoken highly of the Croatian youngster’s game and progress. The match marked their second meeting, after Djokovic prevailed at the 2024 Australian Open.

That Dino means business and has no intention of slowing down after such a victory became clear just two days later, when on Sunday he convincingly defeated world No. 33 Ugo Humbert in straight sets, producing a particularly brilliant display in the opening set. Humbert owns seven ATP titles, while his career-high ranking came in 2024, when he reached world No. 13.

Standing between Dino Prizmic and a place in the Rome quarterfinals is Russia’s Karen Khachanov, currently ranked No. 15 in the ATP rankings.

As a reminder, ATP Plava Laguna Croatia Open recently confirmed Prizmic’s participation in this year’s tournament edition, further highlighting the special connection between the tournament and the Split-born player, who made his professional debut in Umag back in 2022.