‘Are you serious? You and me? Going to dinner?’: Maria Sharapova recalls first meet with Novak Djokovic

Novak Djokovic (L) (Photo: Twitter/@DjokerNole) and Maria Sharapova (Photo: Twitter/@MariaSharapova).


World number one male Tennis player Novak Djokovic and former number one female player Maria Sharapova on Tuesday recalled an old incident during their initial years of the career when both went to a fateful dinner in California.

Recalling the incident in a Live session on Instagram, the two all time greats talked about how they met for the first time. “I was young and you were young, way before you had any Grand Slam titles… and we played this little exhibition in Indian Wells,” Sharapova remembered.

“I was young and you were young, way before you had any Grand Slam titles… and we played this little exhibition in Indian Wells,” Sharapova recalled.

“I think we were playing mixed doubles against each other, and you said that if you won, I would have to pay for dinner – and I said, ‘Okay, who is this kid?’

“And you won and were like, ‘We have dinner. Tonight. We’re going to the Japanese place,’ and I was like, ‘Are you serious? You and me? Going to dinner? Tonight?’

“So we did! You pulled out this old Kodak camera and you asked the waiter to take a photo of us, and I was like, ‘This feels like I auctioned myself off for this dinner,’ and here we are! I don’t remember anything about who we played with, but I remember this dinner and this old-school camera.”

Djokovic, too, confirmed that Sharapova’s recollection was true but refused to disclose the photo. However, later he revealed that he had lost the camera.