Melbourne: Veteran Serbian Tennis professional Novak Djokovic on Saturday has disclosed that he admires Indian cricketer Virat Kohli and what he has achieved throughout his career. Djokovic has also revealed that he and Virat Kohli have been in touch for a long time, but have not met each other in person yet.
Speaking to India’s official television broadcasters of AO, Sony Sports, Djokovic said, “I admire all of his career, achievements, and everything he has done for the country. Virat Kohli and I have been texting a bit for a few years. We never got a chance to meet in person, but it was an honor and a privilege to hear him speak nicely about me.”
He also mentioned that he is learning to play cricket so that whenever he gets a chance to visit India, he shouldn’t feel embarrassed.
“I started to play cricket, but I'm not very good at it. But I have a task to perfect my cricket skills before I come to India, and not embarrass myself, when I'm there,” the world number 1 added further.
Earlier, on Friday, the 36-year-old hosted the Australian celebrities during the event and played both, cricket and tennis with country’s star Cricketer Steve Smith and late Shane Warne’s son Jackson. He also tried his hand at cricket but failed to make contact with the ball, playing cross-batted shots. However, when he switched a cricket bat with a tennis racket the ball flew into the crowd at Melbourne Park.
Virat Kohli has also praised Djokovic after watching his clip of playing cricket with Steve Smith in the Australian Open's charity match.
"I saw that clip of him and Steve playing a bit of cricket and tennis. I think he's way better at swinging the bat than probably we are at swinging that racket. Steve did pretty well to return his serve. So I was a bit tempted. I was like, you know when you play cricket and you have hand-eye coordination, you're very tempted with racket sports. You feel like, I can do this. But I've seen games live, tennis matches, and I know how fast those serves are, so I probably don't have a chance to touch that," he stated.
The Serbian tennis player has won the most men’s Australian Open titles (10) and will be vying to add one more to his tally, taking his Grand Slam title count to 25. Notably, he has the record highest win percentage of 92 in this AO with 89-8 win-loss record, making him the second-most successful player in this Slam, with Federer leading the chart (102 wins).
Djokovic will enter the green court to defend his title and will face the 18-year-old Croatian Dino Prizmic, who is making his main draw Slam debut in the campaign opener.
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