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LONDON: Novak Djokovic hopes the support of Argentina legend Diego Maradona can inspire him to victory at the ATP World Tour Finals.
Maradona is a big tennis fan and was cheering on Djokovic from courtside at London’s O2 Arena on Monday as the Serbian third seed started his bid to win the prestigious end-of-year event with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over the Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych.
Djokovic revealed Maradona will be backing him at the tournament him all week after the pair finally met in London following a long-distance exchanges of gifts over the past three years.
He sent the former Barcelona and Napoli forward a racquet and shirt to show his admiration and was delighted when Maradona responded with a gift of a signed shirt.
The world number three wasn’t even born when Maradona cemented his reputation as the best player of his generation - and one of the greatest of all-time - by leading Argentina to victory at the 1986 World Cup.
But Djokovic is still a huge fan of Maradona after watching footage of his brilliant solo goal against England in the 1986 tournament and of course his infamous ‘hand of god’ goal in the same match.
“He’s an image that is recognized all over the world. Just to have him as a support is an incredible honor and pleasure,” Djokovic said.
“It’s a big pleasure to meet him. He’s maybe the best player that ever played football. He’s one of the biggest icons of the sport ever.
“One of the Argentinian journalists told me he likes watching me play so I sent him a shirt and racquet.
“He got me a jersey in return with a signature. It’s at home in a very special place. That’s kind of the connection that we had in the past couple years. But this is the first time we met in person.
“He’s going to stay throughout the whole tournament. Hopefully he can be my lucky charm.”
Although Maradona speaks little English, Djokovic was able to talk to him in Italian and has arranged for the 50-year-old to join him for a light-heartened training session later this week.
“We spoke about eventually him coming to practice and playing a little bit of tennis and football. So hopefully he’s going to come to show me some skills,” Djokovic said.
“He’s actually doing coaching, you didn’t know that? We’re working on some specifics, like how to play with hands, high balls!”
Maradona has developed quite a passion for tennis in recent years and, with time on his hands after his departure as Argentina coach after this year’s World Cup, he has decided to spend a week in London watching the world’s top eight players in action.
Djokovic admitted he was briefly gripped by nerves when he saw Maradona take his seat early in the first set, but he responded with an impressive display that had the Argentine leaping off his seat to salute some fine winners.
“Maradona loves tennis,” said Djokovic, who was also supported by actor Robert De Niro at the US Open recently.
“He was watching the Davis Cup final, Argentina against Russia, a couple years back. He’s very passionate about this sport. It’s great to see that.
“To be honest with you, when you say Maradona in the box, I didn’t know that he was going to come and I got nervous.
“But it’s great to have support from these people. It means you succeeded in your life as well.
“It makes you proud of yourself that such important people in life come to watch you and be there for hours and hours watching your match. So this is definitely a big thing.”
