Ailing Novak Djokovic falls to Dino Prizmic in Rome, first match since Indian Wells

Novak Djokovic’s first trip to the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in two years ended in disappointment on Friday, the 24-time Grand Slam champion bowing out, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 to Dino Prizmic in his opening match.

Djokovic was last at the Foro Italico in 2024, when he suffered a freak head injury due to a fan’s dropped water bottle, and has been off the court since a fourth-round exit from the BNP Paribas Open. After a strong performance in the first set, the former No. 1 was visibly ill in the second and ultimately exited Court 1 after two hours and 15 minutes.

Competing two weeks shy of his 39th birthday, Djokovic has been in search of a 25th Grand Slam title, one that would give him the all-time record for major victories. He came agonizingly close to achieving that goal earlier this year at the Australian Open, where he stunned Jannik Sinner in a five-set semifinal but finished runner-up to Carlos Alcaraz. The Serb has played just one tournament since then heading into the clay-court season.

“I wanted to be back on the tour earlier, but unfortunately the injury prevented me to do that,” he said in his pre-tournament press conference, “so I had to wait a bit more and progressively improve the state of the body and obviously get ready for Roma, the city and the tournament that I truly love, and I had great success in for many years.

“The ultimate goal on this surface is Roland Garros and trying to get ready to play my best tennis there. But nevertheless I do want to do well here, so I do have a lower expectations.”

Earning a bye into the second round as the No. 3 seed, Djokovic drew the 20-year-old Croatian, who pushed him to four sets in their only previous meeting at the 2024 Australian Open. Winning two matches to qualify for the main draw, Prizmic, who scored his first Top 10 victory over Ben Shelton last week at the Mutua Madrid Open, booked his rematch against Djokovic with a straight-sets win over Marton Fucsovics on Wednesday.

Djokovic made a strong start to their rain-delayed meeting on Friday, breaking serve twice to clinch the opening set but struggled through the early rallies in the second set, winning just six points in the first four games. Nearly down 0-5, Djokovic got on the board but Prizmic served out the second set and claimed a decisive break in the fifth game of the third.

Djokovic gamely served to stay in the match at 5-3, but Prizmic would not be denied and, with one last ace, clinched the biggest win of his young career—and matched his best result at a Masters 1000 event—in just over two hours.

Awaiting him in the third round will be either No. 31 seed Ugo Humbert or Czechia’s Vit Kopriva, who reached the fourth round last week in Madrid.