The Story of Novak Djokovic at Estroil 2007
An unknown story of Novak Djokovic's connection with Benfica Football Club
A big football fan, Novak attended Benfica-Sporting on Sunday night, missing out on the players party. The next day, Benfica president sent him a personalized shirt.
Novak Djokovic took to the court wearing the shirt, and inexplicably got booed. Little did he know, Benfica is the popular club of Lisbon, while Sporting is the ‘posh’ one- a fan favourite in Estroil. You should’ve realized by now that many tennis “fans” are elitists and snobs.
In Round 1, Novak battled past Andreev 7-6 in the third set, put the Benfica shirt back on to exit the court and got booed again, much to his confusion.
The tournament apologized and explained to him the situation, which Novak addressed with humour in his press conference.
Novak went to reach the finals, where he overcame Richard Gasquet 7-6 0-6 6-1 for the title.
After match point, he threw his match shirt into the crowd which meant he had to find a new one for the trophy ceremony. Ever the Djoker, he pulled out a red shirt from his bag…
…the one of Serbia’s national football team. The fans in the stadium would’ve been so shocked for a minute when they saw the red shirt!
Novak only played Estroil once, but he made it memorable- and he’s remained a notorious Benfica fan ever since.
In fact, when he made it to World Number 1 in 2011, he received a special present from Portugal: another Benfica shirt, with his name and #1 on it!
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