Ben Shelton crashed out of the Madrid Open after losing to world number 87 Dino Prizmic in a shocking second-round upset.
Prizmic, who came through qualifying in Madrid, beat Matteo Berrettini in round one, and has now earned the biggest win of his career by knocking out fourth seed Shelton.
After the American forced a third set by winning a tiebreak in the second, the Croatian held his nerve in another decisive shootout to take the match 6-4, 6-7, 7-6.
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Following his stunning win, Prizmic, who is still only 20 years of age, delivered his immediate reaction.
Dino Prizmic speaks after knocking Ben Shelton out of Madrid
Speaking in his on-court interview, Prizmic said: “It means a lot. Also, today was a very, very hard match for me.
“And I just tried to prepare, like I said, as much as I can. Yeah, I tried to play my game and to stay focused on every point. And yeah, today definitely worked, yeah.
“I’m working a lot with my team to stay focused and to stay calm on important points. But yeah, he’s like sixth in the world. So for a reason, he’s there.
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“So yeah, on important points, he played very well. But I was waiting for my chance and tried to take it. And today, yeah, I did it.
“[In the] first tiebreaker, I played a lot from the back, from the baseline. So I was like, OK, now I will try to attack every point, and I’ll just try to go for it. And yeah, I tried to change something in the second tiebreaker.”
Laura Robson gives high praise to Dino Prizmic after victory
Analysing the match on Sky Sports, former British player Laura Robson said: “The atmosphere was so good, it was so rowdy in here.
“People were cramming into the little area that I’m in, which is meant to be for TV and tournament guests, but it was like every man and his dog from the tournament, came up to have a look at that tiebreak, all the hitting partners that have been on the practice courts were up here, some of them cheering for Shelton, some of them cheering from Prizmic.
“It was just the fact that Dino held his nerve at the end, you felt the experience that Shelton had was going to get him over the line, given how tight the situation was.
“But Prizmic ripped a forehand line to go 4-2 up in the breaker. To go into that changeover with a little bit of a lead… But it was the way that he won that match that was so, so impressive.
“We’ve had high, high hopes for him, haven’t we, since the Australian Open a couple of years ago.”
In the first round of the 2024 Australian Open, Prizmic burst onto the scene by taking first-seeded Novak Djokovic to four sets in an impressive display as a teenager.
Robson continued: “Now to see him deliver a performance like that on a big stage, and really outhit Shelton, which doesn’t happen that often.
“It was an incredible atmosphere, Shelton as he was walking off was giving his opponent a round of applause, because he did just play too good today.”
Prizmic will take on either Tomas Martin Etcheverry or Sebastian Ofner in the next round of the Madrid Open.
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