{"id":265116,"date":"2023-01-21T23:11:21","date_gmt":"2023-01-22T00:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=265116"},"modified":"2023-01-22T13:58:48","modified_gmt":"2023-01-22T13:58:48","slug":"dokic-fesses-up-to-djokovic-over-17-year-fib","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=265116","title":{"rendered":"Dokic fesses up to Djokovic over 17-year fib"},"content":{"rendered":"

After his comprehensive win over Grigor Dimitrov on Saturday night<\/a>, Novak Djokovic was interviewed on the court by Nine commentator Jelena Dokic, who he first met nearly two decades ago.<\/p>\n

"I haven't seen you in ages," he said.<\/p>\n

When pushed by the Aussie legend, he correctly guessed that they spoke in 2006 – two years before he won the Australian Open<\/a> for the first time, and two years after they had a practice hit together.<\/p>\n

LIVE UPDATES:<\/strong> Australian Open day seven<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Djokovic sets a date with 'quickest' de Minaur<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong>Stosur's teary farewell to professional tennis<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

That's when Dokic made a hilarious confession.<\/p>\n

\"Jelena<\/p>\n

"You came to me in 2006, and you said 'hi I'm Novak Djokovic, do you remember me?' And I said to you 'yes I do', and I have to admit, I didn't. We hit two years earlier – I pretended I did, but I definitely know who you are now!"<\/p>\n

That brought loud applause from the crowd, as did what Djokovic said next.<\/p>\n

Watch the Australian Open live and free on the Nine Network: Channel 9, 9Gem and <\/strong><\/em>9NOW<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

"I was looking up to you, obviously. You played for Australia but you came from our region, we speak the same language and you were a big star at the time," said the Serbian.<\/p>\n

"I was really happy to play with you, it's great to see you again."<\/p>\n

"The pleasure was all mine," she replied.<\/p>\n

Djokovic's good natured on-court interview followed another ruthless performance on Rod Laver Arena, with the nine-time Australian Open dispelling concerns over his hamstring injury.<\/p>\n

\"Djokovic<\/p>\n

After being pushed to a tiebreak in the first set by Dimitrov, Djokovic ran away with it to conserve his body with a valuable straight sets victory, finishing off the Bulgarian 7-6 (9-7), 6-3, 6-4.<\/p>\n

He said his hamstring had felt good at the start of the match but had got worse as the match wore on, even if the scoreline didn't reflect that comment.<\/p>\n

"Yeah, p\ufeffills kick in, some hot cream and stuff. That works for a little bit, then it doesn't, then works again. It's really a rollercoaster, honestly," Djokovic said.<\/p>\n

"It requires a lot of energy that is being spent from my side mentally and physically as well, to deal with the match and my opponent and also with not ideal physical state."<\/p>\n

\ufeffDjokovic faces Australian star Alex de Minaur in the fourth round and said he expected a "big challenge". The pair have never played each other before.<\/p>\n

"I think we don't know much about each other's games, but still we know each other pretty well because he's been around for quite a few years. I've watched him play numerous times. I know how he plays," Djokovic added.\ufeff<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After his comprehensive win over Grigor Dimitrov on Saturday night, Novak Djokovic was interviewed on the court by Nine commentator Jelena Dokic, who he first […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265116"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=265116"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":265118,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265116\/revisions\/265118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=265116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=265116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=265116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}