Dubai: Marko Djokovic is hoping to learn from his older brother's mistakes and set a course for himself in the demanding world of men's tennis.
"Yes, of course it helps to have a brother like that. It is a privilege. He's helping me a lot with all the advice. He knows a lot about tennis, and he's trying to push me to go more and more, to improve, to not make mistakes that he made in that stage of his life, you know, in his age," Marko said of world number one and elder brother Novak.
"But, we cannot compare. He was No 3 already when he was 20 years old. But still, he still shares his life experience and everything. So, he's helping me a lot. We have one more younger brother who is also playing tennis. He's 16 years old. So, we're all pushing ourselves to go further," he added.
With Novak watching from the stands, Marko started off well, breaking qualifier Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan for a 2-0 lead. But once the Kazakh inched ahead at 4-3, there was no stopping the 24-year-old Golubev from Astana as he won in straight sets in 71 minutes on centre court yesterday.
Pre-match advice
Asked if Novak had offered him any pre-match advice, Marko said: "He just told me to relax and play my best, and that it's important to play my game because if I do then hopefully I will win."
Marko, four years younger to Novak, is still learning to put up with the pressure. "It's tough to say, because there have been a lot of positive and negative things being his brother. It's a lot positive. Financially, I have all the needs and I can get all the coaches and the practice environment," Marko noted.
"But negative things, there are a lot of pressures. Everybody expects you to be as a brother, which is really tough, to achieve. But I'm trying. I'm doing my best," he added.
Last year, Marko struggled with a wrist injury. But now he can see himself getting back to his normal game.
"The wrist is perfect now after a surgery. I had a really tough time because I'm still young and I was thinking whether I go to college or not. But now, I know that I can play good tennis. Golubev played really good, and I saw the quality of the tennis is not that far away from my tennis. Hopefully, I can improve a lot. I'm still young, so will be good to continue," Marko added.
