Novak Djokovic’s next rival got special offer after fiery clash saw Serb swear at crowd | Tennis | Sport

Novak Djokovic will start his clay season at the Italian Open on Friday, meeting qualifier Dino Prizmic in his opening match. The Serbian superstar has played only two tournaments this season, finishing runner-up at the Australian Open and then losing in the fourth round in Indian Wells.

Almost two months after his last outing on the match court, Djokovic is back in action at the Foro Italico, where he faces a familiar foe in Prizmic. Two years ago, the young Croatian left a very big impression on the 24-time Grand Slam champion when he took a set off of Djokovic in the first round of the Australian Open.

It was a fiery match – Djokovic was seen telling the crowd to “shut the f*** up” after they made noise in the middle of the second set tiebreak. He then made some costly unforced errors and lost the breaker, allowing Prizmic to take the set 7-6(5).

The 10-time former champion battled back to claim a 6-2 6-7(5) 6-3 6-4 victory over Prizmic, who was aged just 18 at the time, and was playing his first Grand Slam main draw match. At more than four hours, it became the longest first-round Major match of Djokovic’s career.

And the current world No. 4 was full of praise for Prizmic afterwards, applauding him off the court “I mean, he deserves every applause, every credit that he got tonight,” Djokovic said immediately after the four-set battle.

“He’s an amazing player, I must say. So mature for his age, he handled himself on the court incredibly well. This is his moment, honestly, it could’ve easily been his match as well.”

The 38-year-old also admitted that he wanted to be in the Croatian’s corner for the rest of his career. He added: “I certainly want to be in his corner so hopefully he’ll invite me because he’s going to make some big things. That’s for sure. We’re going to see a lot of him in the future.”

But Djokovic won’t be Team Prizmic when they meet at the Italian Open. The Serb is competing in Rome for the first time since 2024, when he lost to Alejandro Tabilo in the third round.

Djokovic has already been training with Arthur Fils this week, losing their practice set 6-2. Meanwhile, Prizmic has found form on the clay in recent weeks. He finished runner-up at the Monza Challenger last month, and then made it to the third round of the Madrid Open as a qualifier, shocking fourth seed and recent Munich champion Ben Shelton en route.

Now the world No. 79 will be hoping to cause another massive upset when he meets Djokovic in Rome.