Djokovic acknowledges Kohli for Australian Open wishes, says 'looking forward to the day we play together'
Novak Djokovic acknowledges and reacts to Virat Kohli's wishes ahead of Aus Open
World number one Novak Djokovic responded to Indian star batter Virat Kohli's good wishes for the ongoing Australian Open 2024 edition. The first Grand Slam of the year kicked off in Melbourne on Jan 14 which saw Djokovic play his first-round game on Day One. Djokovic went pastCroatia’s Dino Prizmic,6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4, in the men's singles. Later, he reacted to Kohli's wishes on social media platform X.
Taking to his official account on X, formerly Twitter, Djokovic wrote, "Thank you for these kind words @imVkohli Looking forward to the day we play together". This was in response tothe former Indian skipper Kohli's revelationon how the two superstar athletes have been in touch, on Instagram,for a few years.
'I hope you have a great tournament'
Ahead of Kohli's T20I return, on Sunday evening during India's second and penultimate T20I versus Afghanistan in Indore, the 35-year-old spoke about his interaction with Djokovic in a video on BCCI.tv."I got in touch with Novak very organically, I think on I was I was just looking at his profile once on Instagram, and I just happened to press the message button and thought I would just say hello. And then I saw a message from him on my DM already. I had never opened it myself. I was like, let me just check if it's a fake account or something like that. But then I checked it again and it was legitimate. And then yeah, we got talking. We keep exchanging messages every now and then. I congratulated him for all his amazing achievements,” said Kohli.
“I would like to wish you all the very best for the Australian Open. I know how excited and prepared you are for these big events, and I have no doubt that we'll see the Novak Djokovic that we've seen over the years. I hope you have a great tournament,” he added.
Later, Djokovic reacted to Kohli's message, shared by BCCI's account on X, after moving to the second round of the Australian Open.
The Serb also spokeabout his tournament-opener in which he hada tough time against Prizmic in a game which lasted over four hours. Djokovic is eyeing his tenth title at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Meanwhile, Kohli returned to India's T20I setup in the second and penultimate game of the India-Afghanistan series at home. In his side's successful 173-run chase, the batter played a vital part with an entertaining 16-ball 29. The third and final T20I will be played in Bengaluru on Wednesday (Jan 17) with India eyeing a clean sweep.