Dino Prizmic About

Split's warrior: the junior champ who finally cashed his Djokovic chip

Dino Prizmic is the latest export of Tenis Klub Split, the Croatian production line that gave the tour Goran Ivanisevic and Mario Ancic. He turned pro in 2022 and announced himself a year later: the first Croatian boys' singles champion at Roland Garros since Cilic in 2005, beating Prado Angelo in the 2023 final. The pro climb wasn't linear — a wrist injury wiped out a season, and by February 2025 he had fallen close to dropping out of the top 400, forced to start again almost from scratch.

Right-handed and listed at 6-foot-2, Prizmic is a court-coverage grinder, not a ball-striker. He methodically moves opponents with his crosscourt backhand and forehand, makes the court wider, and controls rallies without swinging all out — there's a compact, unhurried smoothness to his ground strokes, especially the backhand, that lets him absorb and redirect pace. The forehand is his self-declared favorite shot, clay his preferred surface. What scouts flagged first, though, was the temperament: he markets himself as a "warrior," and beating him means a fight that wears you down.

His career has been bookended by Novak Djokovic. As an 18-year-old qualifier at the 2024 Australian Open, he pushed Djokovic to a four-hour, one-minute four-setter — the longest first-round match of the World No. 1's career. He finally got the scalp this spring: at the Italian Open, he came from behind to defeat Djokovic 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the second round. The run carried him to the Rome fourth round and a career-high.

That breakthrough was set up weeks earlier in Madrid, where, playing through qualifying, he upset fourth seed Ben Shelton for his first top-10 win before losing to Tomas Martin Etcheverry. Now ranked No. 70 and a direct entrant at the slams, the Split product is no longer a qualifier-draw curiosity — he's a seeded threat in the making.

Dino Prizmic at a glance

Dino Prizmic is 21 years old; was born in Split, Croatia; stands 1.88 m; plays right-handed; and is ranked No. 97 in the ATP rankings.