Croatian 20-year-old tennis representative Dino Prižmić (ATP – 71st) convincingly won his first Grand Slam tournament victory by defeating 22-year-old American qualifier Michael Zheng (ATP – 146th) in the first round of Roland Garros 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 after one hour and 45 minutes of play.
Prižmic’s next opponent will be the winner of the duel between Brazilian Joao Fonseca (ATP – 30th) and domestic qualifier Luka Pavlović (ATP – 240th).
Prizmić needed it 59 minutes for winning the first two sets in which he conceded only two games to his opponent. He led Dino 2-0 in the third set as well, in which Zheng offered him stronger resistance and threatened to take away his serve. What he failed to do in the first and third games of that part of the match, the American representative did in the seventh game. But that was only his short-lived return to results.
In the next two games, the man from Split lost to his opponent just one point and finished the match convincingly.
Prizmić is even took Zheng’s serve seven timeswon as many as 38 points on the return, 11 more than his opponent won when he was on the initial shot. Quite simply, Prižmić was several levels above the tennis player whom Croatian tennis fans also remember as the rival of Milija Poljicka in the junior Wimbledon final, when the Croatian tennis player won the cup.
Prizmic d. Michael Zheng 6-1 6-1 6-3 at Roland Garros
Dino gets his first main draw win at a Slam
He’s had an eventful month
– 1st top 10 win over Ben Shelton in Madrid
– From qualies to 1st Masters R16 in Rome, including a win over his idol, Djokovic
Starting to tap into… pic.twitter.com/pHnvxb7OyO
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) May 24, 2026
For Prižmić, the junior winner of Roland Garros, this was it main draw debut in the senior competition, and after being defeated twice in the first round at the Australian Open (2024 and 2026) and once at the US Open (2025), Dino won his first Grand Slam tournament by taking advantage of a favorable draw.
Apart from Prižmić, Croatia will also be represented in the men’s tournament Marin Cilic (ATP – 45th), who will be on the field only on Tuesday, when he will have a duel against 17-year-old French junior Moise Kouame (ATP – 316th), who received an invitation to the main tournament.
(Hina | Photo: X)
