Novak Djokovic doesn't play in many tournaments these days. Not that it showed at the beginning of the 38-year-old's second-round match at the 2026 Rome Masters as he played rust-free, brilliant tennis against Dino Prizmic. That would soon change, however.
In set one, the 24-time Grand Slam winner used a variety of fantastic drop shots, blistering forehands cross-court and into the corners, and elite returning to push the 20-year-old Prizmic again and again. The 6-2 first-set victory for Djokovic was fitting. He thoroughly outplayed his younger opponent.
That is when the troubles started. After playing with high energy in the opening set, Djokovic suddenly began to fall ill, nearly literally. He vomited twice in the corner of the court and was clearly not able to move as well as he was earlier in the match. Prizmic took advantage, but was also winning points rather easily against the sickened Serbian.
Dino Prizmic stuns Novak Djokovic in the second round of the 2026 Rome Masters
Djokovic didn't call for a medic, though. Instead, he sat for longer than normal in his seat between games. Prizmic did call for a medic, oddly enough, for his own glute issue, but he continued to play and obviously wasn't suffering as much as Djokovic.
After having six winners and four unforced errors in the first set (Prizmic had six and 13, respectively), the ATP No. 4 had four and nine, respectively, in the second set. Meanwhile, Prizmic, with a rather open court at times, had 11 winners and just five unforced errors. The Serbian also won just three of his 10 second serve points.
Djokovic had only played two tournaments in 2026 heading into the Italian Open, the Australian Open, where he lost in the final, and Indian Wells in early March, where he lost in the round of 16 to Jack Draper. One might have wondered how good his conditioning might be, but his illness appears to have nothing to do with conditioning.
While Djokovic began playing with a bit more energy in set three, Prizmic clearly had gained confidence after a shaky start against the legend. He kept hitting with extreme power, hitting returns on the Serbian's serve that he obviously didn't expect. The Croatian was also hitting shots on the run exceedingly well.
This helped get him a break early in the set, and he continued serving with bombast and belief. Djokovic kept hitting well-struck shots to Prizmic's backhand, too, but the young Croatian returned those groundstrokes with precision and power.
Serving at 5-4, Prizmic lost the first point to Djokovic, but got back to 15-all, and that appeared to calm his nerves. He was on the verge of winning the most important match of his young career, of course. It would be the only point he would lose in the game, and Prizmic had defeated the greatest player ever.
Dino Prizmic will next play the winner of the Ugo Humbert and Vit Kopriva match in the third round. The field is relatively open until the semifinals, though, so Prizmic could make a run toward the final, where he would probably play Jannik Sinner and lose.
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