“He kicked my a** the first time we played,” Novak Djokovic talks of his bond with fellow junior Andy Murray ahead of Dubai Championships
Novak Djokovic speaks about the rivalry and projected clash with Andy Murray in Dubai.
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Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic
The Serbian World No.1 Novak Djokovic has given a press conference ahead of the Dubai Open. During this, the Serbian superstar talked about the recent achievements of the Briton legend Andy Murray as well. According to the projected draw, these two are expected to meet in the quarter-finals. They haven’t met on the court for five years now. Their last match was in the Qatar Open final, 2017, where the Serbian won in 3 sets.
As Novak Djokovic said to the press, “It’s not guaranteed that we’re going to meet, but… Off the court, we meet, but on the court, we both need to win two matches. I mean, huge respect to him. Andy and I go back a long time, I think since we were 11 or 12 years old. That’s the first time we met, first time we played against each other. He kicked my ass – sorry for my language – at that time. Ever since then we kind of followed each other on the journey to become professional players.”
These two legends have played 36 times against each other and Djokovic leads the head-to-head 25-11. Murray had to wait for their fifth match to get his first win over the Serbian and then he managed to beat him three times consecutively. In their last five matches, Djokovic leads 3-2 including his first French Open triumph in 2016.
Novak Djokovic impressed by Andy Murray’s recent comeback wins
The Serbian World No.1 heaped praise on Andy Murray for continuously fighting even with “an artificial hip”. He stated in the Dubai press conference that the mentality and grit of the former world No.1 are still the same. As Djokovic said, “We didn’t have much separation in terms of results, in terms of time. Maybe I broke through to the top five earlier than he did, but we were very close always. He’s got so much talent, incredible grit, the incredible mentality of a champion, of a fighter.“
“What is happening now this year with his match points saved in literally every match he plays, the amount of hours he spent on the court since the beginning of the year, particularly in Australia, is just something you must admire and say ‘chapeau’ because of everything he has gone through with his hip.”
Djokovic continued on how deserving the recent success is for the Briton, “You have to note that he has an artificial hip and he’s moving the way he does. He’s constantly looking to improve and to get back to the highest level, which it seems like he’s been doing. He’s just rising in the rankings. The level is better and better.Yeah, I’m very happy for him because he’s a great guy, respects the sport, works very, very hard. So very committed, he deserves his success.”
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