“I wanted to be back on the tour earlier, but unfortunately the injury prevented me to do that,” he said in his pre-tournament press conference, “so I had to wait a bit more and progressively improve the state of the body and obviously get ready for Roma, the city and the tournament that I truly love, and I had great success in for many years.
“The ultimate goal on this surface is Roland Garros and trying to get ready to play my best tennis there. But nevertheless I do want to do well here, so I do have a lower expectations.”
Earning a bye into the second round as the No. 3 seed, Djokovic drew the 20-year-old Croatian, who pushed him to four sets in their only previous meeting at the 2024 Australian Open. Winning two matches to qualify for the main draw, Prizmic, who scored his first Top 10 victory over Ben Shelton last week at the Mutua Madrid Open, booked his rematch against Djokovic with a straight-sets win over Marton Fucsovics on Wednesday.
