Novak Djokovic and Maria Sharapova are known all over the world as two of the most popular tennis stars in the world. Djokogic, who competed in a hard-fought Australian Open finale against Dominic Thiem to claim his 17th Grand Slam title, joine in an Instragram Live chat with five-time Grand Slam winning champion Maria Sharapova, who announced her retirement from the sport in February this year.
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In the chat, Sharapova recalled one of her firsts encounter with the Serbian tennis player. The two indulged in a mixed doubles match, and Djokovic challenged Sharapova that if he won, she would have to take him out for dinner.
“I remember we played this little exhibition. I was young, you were young, way before you had any Grand Slam titles. I don’t know if you’d even won a tournament at that point,” Sharapova recalled. “You said that if you’d win, I would have to pay dinner. I was like, ‘Okay, whatever, who is this kid?’” Sharapova recalled.
{{/usCountry}}“I remember we played this little exhibition. I was young, you were young, way before you had any Grand Slam titles. I don’t know if you’d even won a tournament at that point,” Sharapova recalled. “You said that if you’d win, I would have to pay dinner. I was like, ‘Okay, whatever, who is this kid?’” Sharapova recalled.
{{/usCountry}}“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?’ So we did. We ended up going to dinner and it was so funny because you pulled out I think it was an old Kodak camera and you asked the waiter to take a photo of us… and here we are,” she further said.
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Djokovic, who was left in splits as Sharapova recounted the story, admitted that the entire incident was true. “Maria is saying the truth,” Djokovic said. “I think you were fanboying,” Sharapova replied.
Djokovic further went on to recall that he lost the camera and the photograph. The he further joked: “You have to admit to everyone here that you lost on purpose!”