Watch the best moments of Nadal’s moving tribute at Roland-Garros<\/p>\n
Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n
Djokovic<\/a> quickly moved a set ahead as he looked to bounce back from his Indian Wells disappointment in March – where he lost in the last 16 against Britain’s Jack Draper<\/a> – but Prizmic fought back excellently to win in three sets.<\/p>\n The 20-year-old, who is 18 years younger than 24-time Grand Slam winner Djokovic, secured a 2-6 6-2 6-4 win after the Serbian great showed notable signs of fatigue from the second set.<\/p>\n After the match, Djokovic spoke to Prizmic – who he overcame at the Australian Open two years ago – at the net and the youngster revealed what he told him.<\/p>\n \u201dHe thought I was much better in my movement,” Prizmic explained. <\/p>\n “He\u2019s very happy because also when I played against him [in Australia], he told me lots of things, so I have huge respect for him for that.”<\/p>\n Djokovic was visibly struggling in between points, as he often placed his hands on his knees and slowly walked back to his chair.<\/p>\n The 38-year-old has not played since Indian Wells due to a shoulder injury, which forced him to miss out on the Miami Open.<\/p>\n “I don\u2019t recall a time, in the last couple of years, a preparation where I didn\u2019t have any physical or health issues coming into the tournament; it\u2019s kind of a new reality I have to deal with,” Djokovic explained.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s frustrating, but at the same time, it\u2019s my decision to still perform in those states and conditions, so it is what it is.”<\/p>\n Despite his underwhelming return, Djokovic was quick to praise Prizmic when he spoke to reporters after the match, and backed the Croatian to go far in his career.<\/p>\n \u201dHe\u2019s a great competitor, great fighter, a great kid,” Djokovic told Sky Sports.<\/p>\n “I’ve known him for some years. Obviously we speak the same language, so I always wish him all the best.<\/p>\n \u201dToday he has definitely performed high-level tennis. I told him at the net that his forehand improved a lot. Whatever he has been doing with his team is working out well. He should just keep going.<\/p>\n \u201dI thought also two, two-and-a-half years ago when we played in Australia, I think first round, I thought that he possesses a lot of talent and potential.<\/p>\n “Hopefully he can stay healthy because I know he struggled a lot with injuries. If things come together, he can really go far in the rankings.\u201d<\/p>\n Prizmic will now prepare for his fifth match of the tournament after coming through three qualifying matches before facing his “idol” Djokovic.<\/p>\n “For me, it is hard to [know what to] say,” Prizmic said after beating Djokovic. “I have big respect for Novak. He is my idol, so it was a great match for me today. <\/p>\n “I played unbelievable and I want to stay focused and be ready for the next one.<\/p>\n \u201dThe first set, he played unbelievable. I was like, \u2018Okay, I will just try something to change\u2019, and it worked. <\/p>\n “But definitely, he played a really, really unbelievable first set, and in the end of the second set, I tried to find my game and I did it. So yeah, it\u2019s very, very, very, good.”<\/p>\n Add TNT Sports as a preferred source here<\/a>\u00a0to enjoy more content like this.TNT Sports is the exclusive French Open broadcaster in the UK and Ireland. Coverage of every court will be available to stream live on HBO Max<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watch the best moments of Nadal’s moving tribute at Roland-Garros Video credit: TNT Sports Djokovic quickly moved a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":574648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[194207,101,118,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-574647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-rome-mens-singles-2026","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=574647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/574647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/574648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=574647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=574647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=574647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}