Dino Prižmić, Croatia’s highest-ranked tennis player on the ATP rankings since Monday, convincingly began his campaign at the Plava Laguna Croatia Open in Umag: he defeated eighth seed, Czech Vito Kopriva, 6-1, 6-3 in 77 minutes.
The Split native, currently the 84th player in the world, opened the match with a run of five straight games, conceding just five points to his opponent, ranked 20 places higher. He was flawless in key moments: he converted all four break-point opportunities, saved all three of Kopriva’s break points, and lost only four points on his first serve.
"I played the first set really well and took plenty of opportunities. I’m satisfied with the first match, after not playing points on clay for some time," Prižmić said at the press conference, as reported by Prigorski.hr.
Kopriva posed a serious threat only once, when he had three break-point chances in the second game of the second set, but Prižmić cleared the danger with a sequence of five points to maintain his advantage. In the ninth game of the second set, he sealed the match with another break point, converting it at the first match point.
In Umag, where he reached the quarter-finals in 2023 and 2025, he makes his debut as a Top 100 world-ranked player and without a wildcard. This season, he works with coaches Bojan Jelovac and Marko Toić, with whom he says his game has become more aggressive. He awaits the winner of the tie between Slovak Alex Molčan and Frenchman Valentine Royer for a new entry into the last eight, and will use Tuesday for training and recovery.
The second Croatian representative in the singles draw, 20-year-old Osijek native Matej Dodig, plays at 16:00 on Tuesday at the Goran Ivanišević Stadium against experienced Spaniard Pablo Carreño Busta, a former Top 10 world player and winner of seven ATP titles.
