Zeballos Gets Souvenir After Djokovic Defeat

Shaking hands after a match is customary, but a selfie?

Horacio Zeballos may have started a new trend after being defeated by Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-4 at the Qatar ExxonMobil Open on Wednesday: The Argentine asked the defending champion for a quick picture as he left the court.

“It was quite nice, a nice surprise,” said the Serbian World No. 2. “I think at the end of the day, two tennis players on the court try to outplay each other and win in the game of tennis. Once that’s finished, once you shake hands, you’re people… You’re a person, a human being. Of course you want to win. But once it’s done, it’s done. The past is behind you.”

Eehhh sorryy. Creo que tengo la mejor selfie del dia jejeje. Que groso Nole.un genio!! Y yo figuretiiii.. Me encanto!! pic.twitter.com/lMXDqKdcyl

— horacio zeballos (@HoracioZeballos) January 4, 2017

Zeballos’ tweet roughly translates to say: “Ehh Sorry, I think I get the best selfie of the day hehehe. How great is Nole, genius!! I loved it!!”

Djokovic, who goes on to face Radek Stepanek in the quarter-finals in Doha, said he had never experienced being asked for a selfie by a player he had just defeated.

“I think today’s selfie is a nice example about how one person and a player can leave whatever behind. It was just [a] minute or two after we shook hands. He was already over his lost match and he moved onto doing something different.

“I applaud him for that. I think it was a really nice gesture.”

Time will tell if other players pick up this friendly gesture after their matches. So if he didn’t start a new trend, at least Zeballos got a nice souvenir.