Novak Djokovic’s younger brother Marko says that being the sibling of the world No. 1 has its advantages and disadvantages.
"They're trying more," the 869th-ranked Marko told reporters after his 6-3 6-2 loss to Andrey Golubev in Dubai. "I played qualifiers and Futures and was coming back from the injury, and it was really tough. I had to fight for every point. So this is the big difference when they play against me and then when I see them playing against somebody else. Maybe sometimes I have an advantage because maybe they get scared. You know, Novak's brother. I have to beat him. Like Golubev today, he started so-so in the beginning."
The 20-year-old Marko injured his wrist at the start of 2011 and did not play for 10 months.
"A brother like that is a privilege. He's helping me a lot," Marko said of brother Novak. "He knows a lot about tennis, and he's trying to push me to go more and more, to improve, to not make mistakes that he made in that stage of his life. But we cannot compare. There have been a lot of positive and negative things being his brother. It's a lot positive. Financially I have all the needs and I can get all the coaches and all the practice. But negative things, there is a lot of pressure. Everybody expects, which is really tough to achieve. But I'm trying. I'm doing my best."