Novak Djokovic beat Dimitrov in 70 minutes to reach the final of the Miami Open and try to lift his 100th title in his sporting career. The Serbian tennis player noticed during the match that Leo Messi was watching him live
It was at a moment during the match when the Miami Open production showed the image of Leo Messi in the stands of the stadium on the video scoreboard. The commotion from the crowd caused Novak to turn around to find out what was going on.
Djokovic’s speech about Messi
“I’m very happy, it’s incredible to have (Messi). It’s a great honour and a pleasure to play, I think, for the first time in front of him live. I’m very grateful that he was here with his son and his family. I admired him, of course, as almost everyone did for most of his career, so it’s amazing that he’s here. In fact, we’re the same age; we were born in ’87, so it’s a pleasure to have him around,” said the Serb when asked about Messi.
“I saw him play a few times, I think the World Cup final, I saw when he won with Argentina, I think I saw him last year once, I think it was a Los Angeles-Inter Miami game. Obviously I’m excited to have him here with his family. I saw him after the game, he came to the locker room so we spent some time talking and exchanged gifts,” said Djokovic.
In the locker room, Djokovic and Messi exchanged jerseys. The Serb gave the Argentine his signed green jersey with the message: “For the Messi family, with love.” Messi gave him his pink Inter Miami jersey with the number 10. As a witness, the Argentine Juan Martin del Potro was present
Djokovic also revealed what one of Messi’s sons said to him: “He gave me an eight out of ten, which is pretty good. He was serious and told me that I have to have ten out of ten in the next match. So there I have a bit of pressure from the Messi team. We were joking,” he said.
Read the full article here
