Spanish tennis player Bernabe Zapata Miralles spoke about Novak Djokovic and recalled his first meeting with the Serbian tennis player.
Zapata Miralles achieved the greatest success of his career at this year’s Roland Garros, placing in the eighth-finals where he was defeated by Sasa Zverev after a tense fight, but his consolation was the meeting with the then first racket in the world, Djokovic.
– I had the opportunity to talk to Djokovic in the locker room. I had never spoken a word to him before, and he just approached me. We spoke in English, I was nervous… We talked for five minutes, he was interested in things about me. He congratulated me, and asked me about Valencia, he was really nice. The next day, he saw me training and immediately came to greet us, as if we were colleagues all our lives – Zapata Miralles said for “Puno De Break”.
The 25-year-old Spaniard reached the Top 100, ie the 94th position on the ATP ranking list, via Paris, and in the eighth-finals he was in the part of the draw in which there were some big names.
– I liked that I was in the same part as Rafa and Carlos (Alkaras), it’s always cool, of course. I was really glad to be there, but I was still focused on hard work, I didn’t want to lose focus before the next match. I tried not to think about these things, but my heart was definitely full when I came home – added Miralles.
