The young talent from Split showed both character and fighting spirit in Melbourne, playing a competitive and tightly contested match against Australia’s James Duckworth in the first round of the main draw. Although the final scoreline — 6–7(4), 6–3, 6–1, 5–7, 3–6 — ultimately favored the home player, Prižmić’s performance was anything but disappointing.
The opening set featured an intense battle with no service breaks, with the tiebreak eventually going Duckworth’s way after Prižmić had earlier saved as many as six break points.
Prižmić claimed the second and third sets, dominating particularly in the third, where he dropped just one game while displaying excellent rhythm and aggressive shot-making.
In the fourth set, Duckworth regained control, but Prižmić fought back and created three break-point opportunities at 4–4. The Australian ultimately forced a deciding fifth set, where, at 5–1 down, Prižmić saved two match points before the contest concluded. Duckworth sealed the victory on the eve of his 34th birthday and now advances to face world No. 2 Jannik Sinner in the next round.
It is worth recalling that Prižmić fell to Britain’s Arthur Fery 6–4, 6–1 in the final round of qualifying, but entered the main draw as a lucky loser. Interestingly, that same qualifier, Fery — who had eliminated Prižmić in qualifying — went on to cause another upset in the main draw by defeating 20th seed Fabio Cobolli, a player who has been a familiar and well-liked presence at the Plava Laguna Croatia Open Umag every year from 2021 to 2024. Despite the narrow defeat, Prižmić left Melbourne with a very positive impression, hinting at a strong season ahead in which we expect to see him again in Umag.
Croatia’s main hope in the draw now rests with Marin Čilić, who produced a highly impressive performance to reach the second round, defeating Daniel Altmaier 6–0, 6–0, 7–6(3). In the next round, Čilić will face Denis Shapovalov.
