Mohammed Salem/ReutersMarko Djokovic won five games in his first-round match in Dubai.Tennis tournaments regularly go to great lengths to lure and lavish luxury on their star attractions, but this week’s A.T.P. Dubai Tennis Championships made an unusually grand gesture — awarding a spot in the singles main draw to the top seed’s brother.
In an effort to please Novak Djokovic, the world No. 1 and winner of four of the last five Grand Slam titles, organizers gave Novak’s 20-year-old brother Marko Djokovic a spot in the main draw, despite his ranking — some 868 spots lower than his brother at No. 869.
Marko, who is four years younger than his considerably more famous brother, first emerged onto the tennis scene with an L taped on his chest, sitting third in line as he and his family spelled out Novak’s nickname, Nole, with black tape on white Adidas shirts during Djokovic’s run to the 2008 Australian Open title.
Marko Djokovic is no stranger to wild cards, having received more than 40 of them to gain entry into professional tournaments of various levels in both singles and doubles since 2007.
Although nepotism is an accepted part of professional tennis, this particular wild card allotment sparked more controversy than usual, as the highest-ranked Arab player, No. 104 Malek Jaziri of Tunisia, had previously been told by tournament organizers that the wild card would be his. Jaziri lost in qualifying to Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan, who went on to face Marko Djokovic in the first round.
Another wild card also went to Ukrainian Sergei Bubka Jr. who has received several wild cards into A.T.P. tournaments, perhaps because of his famous father (the record-setting Soviet pole vaulter) or his girlfriend Victoria Azarenka, the current W.T.A. No. 1 and Australian Open champion.
The third wild card into the main draw of the Dubai Tennis Championships went to an Emirati player, Omar Awadhy.
More similarities than just the name on the scoreboard could be found between Marko and Novak during Marko’s first-round match in Dubai against Golubev. With similarly sculpted strokes, Marko looked like any younger brother who had grown up chasing his brother’s shadow, right down to the hand-me-down clothing. He wore the same style of white-collared Sergio Tacchini shirt that his brother wore recently at the Australian Open, complete with “Nole” written on the back.
Marko Djokovic started well, with considerable help from Golubev, who double-faulted twice en route to being broken in the first game of the match. With his brother and parents watching in the stands, Djokovic edged out to a 3-1 lead before Golubev, ranked 143rd, found his rhythm and reeled off five straight games to take the first set, 6-3.
The talent gap between the younger Djokovic and Golubev was perhaps most evident in court positioning, as Djokovic stood several yards behind the baseline and allowed play to be dictated by Golubev on nearly every rally. Though Djokovic was able to hit a few impressive passing shots from the back of the court, Golubev appeared in control throughout the second set and wrapped up a 6-3, 6-2 victory in 71 minutes. Djokovic let out a few yells of frustration as the second set slipped away, but seemed to be in good spirits at the end of the match and left the court to applause from the crowd and his family.
Though he will receive no ranking points for losing in the first round as a wild card, the prize money Djokovic receives for losing in the first round in Dubai ($11,825) is more than the entire purse for all players at his previous tournament, a $10,000 Futures event in Turkey.
Though Djokovic’s career may not amount to much, he won’t be the last member of the family to try to follow in the burnt-rubber skidmarks that Novak has left on hard courts across the globe. Prognosticators familiar with the greener branches of the Djokovic family tree have speculated that the youngest of the three Djokovic brothers, 16-year-old Djordje, could make a significant impact at the professional level.