Vid: Djokovic takes on Zverev

MIAMI, Fla. – Novak Djokovic and Alexander Zverev won’t play until the weekend as the No. 9 and No. 4 seeds, respectively.

So they got in some match practice Wednesday before a big crowd at the Miami Open.

Djokovic will be without coach Radek Stepanek (who is back in the Czech Republic) and mentor Andre Agassi during the event.

But that doesn’t mean he didn’t have lots of people on the court.

Physical trainer David Daglow, and physiotherapist Ulises Badio were both on hand (the two, and Djokovic, had matching Novak Djokovic silhouette T-shirts).

Agent Edoardo Artaldi, nattily attired, even chased down a few balls on court.

(We’ll note that Team Zverev sat comfortably in the shade through most of this practice, as Team Djoker did all the ball-boying. Noted! Could well have been pre-arranged; nothing worse than having six people on a tennis court looking busy chasing balls).

Sleeved, and matchy-matchy

Djokovic had the protective sleeve on his right arm. But as a matter of logistics, it also should be noted that whatever else he wears it for, the hot sun in Miami is murder on arms that have products like Voltaren Emulgel and the like on them.

When the sun here hits that stuff, it can be like a second-degree burn (yes, that’s from personal experience). In fact, that was the reason Milos Raonic started wearing his sleeve back in the day, so that he could keep playing after an incident like that.

Here are a few tidbits from that practice.

Stepanek to be a daddy

Meanwhile, Stepanek has a little – huge – personal matter to attend to, in his absence.

It’s official; he and ex-wife Nicole Vaidisova, who were engaged and married when Vaidisova was far too young and divorced five years ago, have reunited and are expecting a child.

A post shared by Nicki Vaidisova (@nicolevaidisova) on Mar 20, 2018 at 1:03pm PDT