MELBOURNE.- Until he ran into the defending champion Novak Djokovic in the Rod Laver Arena on the opening Sunday in Australia, Dino Prizmic I had never played a match Grand Slam.
The Croatian, 18 years old, who bypassed the qualifying phase and was born seven months after Djokovic’s debut in a Grand Slam in 2005, He resisted as long as he could. He put the 24-time champion in trouble until the Serbian finished the match 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4.
Djokovic is the owner of a record in the Australian Open that no other man can come close to: 10 of the titles of his unprecedented individual harvest were won in the Melbourne Park. After the match, the Serbian star indicated that he had been “unwell” for four or five days, but praised Prizmic’s talent.
The first set went as expected. But then everything changed.
Prizmic won the second set and took advantage in the third with a break, surprising the audience that filled the arena. But the world number one went bankrupt immediately and took the set.
The Croatian teenager did not give up when he was down 4-0 in the fourth, he raised a break point and recovered a serve. He raised three match points after losing 5-3 and made Djokovic have to close the match with the serve. He saved two more match points until the match ended after 4 hours and 1 minute.
“He deserved every applause, all the credit received tonight”Djokovic highlighted. “It was an incredible performance by someone who was 18 years old and had never had the experience of playing on a big stage.”
Strange day in Australia:
The first of three Sundays — the Melbourne Park added an extra day to try to reduce the number of games ending after midnight — it didn’t have the desired effect.
Andrey Rublevthe fifth seed, needed four hours to defeat the Brazilian 7-5, 6-4, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (6) Thiago Seyboth Wild. Rublev later acknowledged that he feared the same fate as his Russian compatriot and friend in the first round. Daniil Medvedev in it French Open: a defeat.
The American Taylor Fritz, 12th seed, he asked for a break to have his left ankle taped in the second set and worked hard to defeat the Argentine 4-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 Facundo Díaz Acosta in four hours.
Source: AP
