Novak Djokovic of Serbia (L) chats with Maria Sharapova of Russia (R) during training before the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on June 22, 2008 in London, England. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
Novak Djokovic has spoken with many stars on Instagram recently and Maria Sharapova was his latest guest
World No.1 Novak Djokovic brought a popular face to his Instagram interviews this week with Maria Sharapova joining the Serbian.
Sharapova retired from tennis in 2020 after several niggling injuries, but is considered as one of the finest female players to have taken up the racquet.
The Russian won five Grand Slams in her career and her last one was the French Open in 2014. Sharapova is one of a handful of stars to have won each Grand Slam at least once but is now more inclined to her business interests.
Djokovic, for his part, won his 17th Grand Slam in the 2020 Australian Open, and he is trying to catch up with Roger Federer who is on 20.
The discussion between Djokovic and Sharapova stretched across several topics, and here are the three things we learned from this session.
Djokovic and Sharapova have been on the circuit a while, but their first meeting took place in an exhibition match.
The World No.1 was a brash youngster at the time, and he tried his luck on Sharapova. The Russian highlighted how their first meeting went, and it was the Djoker that got the better of Sharapova:
“You said that if you’d win, I would have to pay dinner. I was like, ‘Okay, whatever, who is this kid?’ You won and you were like, ‘We have dinner tonight. We’re going to the Japanese place!’ I was like, ‘Are you serious? You and me, going to dinner, tonight?’”
Sharapova added that Djokovic even got a snap taken of the pair from the waiter. This was way before Djokovic won any Grand Slams and the Serb claimed that Sharapova lost the match on purpose.
The Serbian has been speaking about doing a lot of work at home, and it seems he is helping out in the kitchen too.
Djokovic has shared several videos of how to keep mentally strong during these days. However, the Serbian seems to have a great time cooking things up.
Djokovic admitted that his wife, Jelena, does most of the cooking, but he doesn’t mind getting his hands dirty in the morning:
“I must admit my wife does more cooking for me, I am more of a breakfast, brekkie as they like to say in Australia, kind of person.
“I like to make juices, smoothies, breakfast bowls, those types of things. Avocado and toast, stuff like this with tomatoes.”
However, Djokovic admitted that this allows him to spend more quality time with his wife.
Sharapova also recalled how Djokovic had grown mentally and physically in the years that have passed.
The Serbian was brash in his initial years on the circuit, and would often struggle on certain surfaces. That cannot be said now as Djokovic is one of the greatest to have played tennis, but Sharapova was convinced he needed to work on certain facets of his game:
“I remember watching you on clay and all the cramping and being, ‘Are you ever going to get your s*** together?’
“To see you make a transformation, what I loved about this sport, our game and our results really did the talking for us.”
Djokovic did have issues with the long games during his early career, but that has changed considerably in recent years.
The Serbian is still hungry for more and it will be interesting to see if he can overtake Federer on the all-time Grand Slam list.
Unfortunately, the tennis season has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. No matches will take place before July and even Wimbledon has been cancelled for this year.
There are just two more Grand Slams left on the calender, so Djokovic would have to wait till next year to tie with Federer or even surpass him.
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