20-year-old Croatian tennis player Dino Prižmić (ATP-127) was defeated by Australian James Duckworth (ATP-88) 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-1, 5-7, 3-6 in the 1st round of the Australian Open Grand Slam tournament on Tuesday after 4 hours and 22 minutes of fighting.
In the first set, the Australian had a chance to break in four games on Prižmić’s serve, but he did The man from Split managed to hold his serve and the decision fell in tie-break. In the 13th game, Duckworth took a 4-1 lead with two mini breaks and eventually won the first set.
The loss of the first set did not disturb the concentration of the Croatian tennis player, who at the start of the second set had two break pointsbut he didn’t use them. The second chance to take away the serve, which appeared to him in the fifth game, Prižmić did not miss. He kept the advantage of the forfeited serve, and won the second set with another break.
In the next set Prižmić was even more convincingheld his serve firmly and won the set 6-1 with two breaks. In the fourth set, the man from Split was the first to get a chance to break, at 1-1 he missed four break points. After that, he lost his serve, but he returned it in the next game. A new opportunity to take Prižmić’s serve appeared in the ninth game, but the Australian saved three break points. Missed opportunities took revenge on the Croatian tennis player, he lost his serve at 5-6 and Duckworth took the match to the fifth set.
In the deciding set At 1-1, Prižmić did not use the break opportunityand after that he loses his serve. Duckworth once again takes away his opponent’s serve and with a 5-1 lead, he serves for the match. However, Prižmić manages to return one lost serve. In the next game, the Croatian tennis player saved two match points on his serve and reduced the deficit to 3-5, but this only briefly postponed the question of the winner, because Duckworth won the next service game.
In the second round, Duckworth will play two-time Australian Open winner Italian Jannik Sinner, who was handed the match by Frenchman Hugo Gaston after losing the first two sets 2-6, 1-6.
(Hina | Photo: Mario Ćužić / HTS)
