Novak Djokovic fondly recalls playing doubles with younger brother Marko at Monte-Carlo Masters in 2019
Novak Djokovic recently looked back at the 2019 Monte-Carlo Masters, where he played doubles with younger brother Marko Djokovic.
Novak and Marko Djokovic were awarded a wildcard to enter the doubles main draw at the 2019 Monte-Carlo Masters. The brothers were handed the tough task of facing No. 4 seed Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah.
The Djokovic brothers' stay in the competition was short-lived as they were swatted aside by Cabal and Farah in straight sets 6-1, 6-3. An Instagram Reel from their match recently caught the eye of the World No. 1 and he asked Marko if he remembered the contest.
The Reel featured the first point of the match. Novak was serving, and the opponent returned his serve with a lob over Marko.
Marko first ran back to try and hit an overhead but failed. While stationed at the baseline, Novak tried to recover, but his backhand attempt also failed.
"Remember @djokomare?" Novak wrote in the Instagram Story.
This wasn't the first time Novak Djokovic partnered with his one of his brothers on the ATP Tour. The 36-year-old also played doubles with his other brother, Djordje, at the 2015 China Open.
This partnership was much more successful as the brothers, given a main draw wildcard, reached the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 tournament. Novak and Djordje defeated Gong Maoxin and Michael Venus before losing to eventual champions Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock.
Marko, 32, and Djordje, 28, retired from professional tennis in 2019 and 2015, respectively.
"No ones hates Novak" - Marko Djokovic
Marko Djokovic spoke about his relationship with Novak in an in-depth interview with Tennis Topic in 2016 and shared insights about their tough childhood and the latter's generosity.
Marko detailed how his family persevered through tough times during their childhood, with Serbia going through a war, and did everything they could to keep Novak focused on his tennis career.
According to Marko, this hardship made the 24-time Grand Slam champion the man he is and inspired him to be more generous towards others. Marko particularly praised Novak's motivation to win matches and yearn to help others.
"He likes to help people. He knows if he has much success has more chances to help the others. So he wants to win win and keep winning. [When he was] younger, Novak lived a complicated life, where he did not have any money," Marko has said.
He continued, "Now with money that he earns he helps people in need. It was not the best moment to play tennis in Serbia, with war and all that was happening. The family remained very united. They made a big effort so that we were out of all this, of the war and other problems."
Marko also talked about an altercation Novak had with the Spanish crowd at the 2016 Madrid Open and opined that no one really hates his brother, and he is an inspiration to his fans.
"In Madrid, after beating Bautista Agut someone started to boo at him, but most fans applauded him. No one hates Novak Djokovic. In the streets, people admire him and you can see it," Marko said.