At the Mutua Madrid Open there is always room for an upset. This time around, Dino Prizmic has taken it upon himself to provide it. In his opener, on the Manolo Santana Centre Court, he defeated Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-4 to claim one of the biggest scalps of round one.
At just 20 years of age, the fledgling member of the Top 100 (No. 87, his highest ranking to date), he has pulled off one of those upsets that opening rounds always seem to throw up, knocking out a former finalist of the tournament. This was no ordinary opener, nor was it an ordinary performance. The Croatian arrived in Madrid with a balanced 2026 record (5-5) and no prior experience at this tournament, but his recent results clearly hinted at an imminent breakthrough. In just four years, he’s gone from earning his first ATP point (March 2022) to breaking into the Top 100 this April, spurred on by a Challenger final in Monza. What we saw on centre court is a perfect extrapolation of that trajectory.
Prizmic played with a potent combination of discipline and ambition; solid from the baseline, awkward for his opponent in long rallies and, above all, with enough character to hold his nerve when it came to the crunch. Against a player of Berrettini’s calibre, that’s no mean feat. However, his rise is no surprise. On the Challenger circuit, he has claimed two titles in Zagreb and Bratislava, as well as reaching four consecutive finals between May and July last year. This competitive foundation is now beginning to translate, quite organically, onto the ATP Tour.
Prizmic’s name is hardly unheard of. In 2023, he became the first Croatian since Marin Cilic in 2005 to win the Roland Garros junior title. A year later, on his Grand Slam debut, he battled Novak Djokovic for more than four hours at the Australian Open, a match that proved his competitiveness. After that encounter, the Serbian not only praised his maturity, physique and discipline, but even admitted that at times he felt he was playing against a reflection of himself. It was quite the compliment to describe a player with great defensive skills, a rock-solid backhand, comfort in long rallies, and a mentality well beyond his years.
Madrid was more than just a test, but it was one he passed with flying colours. His win over Berrettini is his second win at an ATP Masters 1000 —his first on clay — and puts him on the all-time list of Croatians to win in the main draw here, alongside the likes of Cilic, Ljubicic, Coric, Karlovic and Ancic. In the second round, he now faces a huge challenge; Ben Shelton, the fourth seed and recent champion in Munich, awaits.