FANtastic Fan Day contest was a hit

In professional tennis, going that extra mile can make all the difference. It’s the same in other competitions too — including Thursday’s FANtastic Fan Day contest at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, where The weekend tabloid! was on the hunt for the best show of spirit on quarter-finals day.

With Juan Martin Del Potro and Roger Federer playing matches that day, it was no surprise that there were plenty of blue-and-white-striped Argentines in the crowd, and bright red-and-white displays from supporters of the Swiss.

But it was another top player who inspired the eventual winners on the day — Novak Djokovic, who earlier in the day had dominated seventh seed Andrea Seppi 6-0 6-3 to go into a semis match against Del Potro on Friday.

Zoran Djordevic and 11 members of his family and friends came in their custom-made Novak t-shirt, promoting doubles stars Eric Butorac, Rohan Bopanna and Rajeev Ram to pick them as the most fantastic fans.

“You made the effort,”said Butorac, while partners Bopanna and Ram deliberated over a fan in Argentine shirt and a “Joker” hat. “Who’s he supporting – Del Potro or Djokovic? And this guy looks like Maradona. I think it’s really nice that people come and dress up, look good and have fun,”said Ram.

A woman in a Federer jacket and trousers with the Swiss flag on the seat also repeatedly caught their attention, “She’s gone head-to-toe. There’s even a keychain — that helps her as well,”said Butorac. But it was the homemade efforts of the Djordevics that got them the top prize — tickets to the final and a spa treatment at the Jumeirah Creekside Hotel (the other runners-up received vouchers for the hotel’s rooftop Cu-Ba bar).

As to whether they’d like to see more fans come in costume, the three were unanimous. “It makes us play better tennis, more passionae tennis,” said Butorac.