Novak Djokovic has lifted the lid on meeting seven-time world champion Ronnie O'Sullivan after his first-round win at Wimbledon.
He may have had meniscus surgery less than a month ago but the clinical Djokovic claimed a comprehensive 6-1 6-2 6-2 victory over Vit Kopriva in one hour and 58 minutes on Centre Court.
The Serbian will now take on local British wildcard Jacob Fearnley in the second round.
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After the straight sets win over Kopriva on Tuesday afternoon, Djokovic opened up about his relatively-new friendship with Ronnie O'Sullivan, who was a guest in Djokovic's box at the All England Club.
"I'm his fan. I watch snooker just because of him," he told Eurosport. "I watched when I was a kid. Honestly, I watched him play many years ago. My father loved watching snooker. I only watched Ronnie.
"Whenever he would not play, I would not watch. We just had a meet-up, an interaction for the first time. It was great."
Djokovic added: "He was one of the sport greats I used to watch when I was a kid. It was really nice to have him around. Hopefully we're able to play some snooker 'cause I'm really bad at snooker. I'm okay at pool or billiard, but snooker, I tried it twice, and it's really, really tough.
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"Yeah, it's amazing. He's a really, really nice person, nice guy, and very funny."
Speaking in 2020 ahead of his semi-final clash against Mark Selby at the World Championship, O'Sullivan said he needed to be more like Djokovic.
'The Rocket' said: “I probably need to be like a [Novak] Djokovic. You know Djokovic, he’s double solid, he does everything very well and he’s not going to give you anything.
"He’s not the most flamboyant, he’s not going to give you the Federer brilliance or the Nadal forehand but he’s there from start to finish and his form doesn’t dip much. I’ve always said to win in Sheffield you have to have that steady state type of game."
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O'Sullivan, who is widely regarded as the best snooker player of all time, also called Djokovic "the king of them all" when discussing the modern day tennis greats.
"I love tennis and I love watching his career," he told MARCA. "I love watching Federer and Nadal, the three greatest players of all time, but Novak seems to me to be the king of them all. He's doing amazing things on a tennis court. He is simply a champion of champions."
Topics: Novak Djokovic, Ronnie OSullivan, Snooker, World Snooker Championship, Tennis
Jack Kenmare