Novak Djokovic in stitches at young fan’s adorable reaction to gift

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Novak Djokovic was left in stitches after a young fan “burst into tears” when he gifted him one of his wristbands. The fifth seed in Astana booked his spot in the quarter-finals on Thursday with another dominant win and delighted some members of the crowd with some mementos from his bag.

Djokovic won his 13th-successive match on Thursday as he dispatched Botic van de Zandschulp 6-3 6-1 in their first meeting. The world No 7 is playing just his second tournament in three months after winning last week’s Tel Aviv Open, and has not had his serve broken in his last three matches.

The 35-year-old clearly seems to be enjoying the new Astana ATP 500 tournament and has dropped just seven games across his first two rounds, reaching the quarter-finals with his convincing 71-minute win over the world No 34. And he has been delighting the crowd with more than just his dominant performances, handing spectators a number of items from his bag at the end of his second-round match.

Among the gifts handed out by Djokovic was one of his wristbands, as the 21-time Grand Slam champion went out of his way to walk down to a young fan and personally hand him the token to remember his time at the match. And he received an adorable reaction in response, with the child screaming out in delight.

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“That kid just burst into tears when Djokovic gave him his wristband,” the match commentator on Amazon Prime Video laughed, while the fan’s response also caught Djokovic’s attention. The Serb was walking back to his bench when he heard the happy screams and turned around to look at the child, doing a double-take and laughing.

Much to the delight of the fans in Astana, Djokovic isn’t going anywhere after advancing to the quarter-final, where he will face Karen Khachanov on Friday. The pair have met seven times with the world No 18 getting just one victory over the 35-year-old in the final of the 2018 Paris Masters.

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And Djokovic is feeling good after he was left unable to play the summer’s North American hard-court swing because of his unvaccinated status, admitting that he is physically fresh ahead of the final portion of the season. “I definitely am physically fresh and mentally motivated to do well,” he said after his straight-set victory.

The former world No 1 won his 89th career title in Tel Aviv last week and can make it number 90 in Astana though he has some tough competition in the stacked draw, with a potential semi-final clash against Daniil Medvedev while fellow top 10 players Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev lurk in the other half.

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