Vergeer at the US Open in 2007
The Laureus Sports Awards took place this week in London and Novak Djokovic used the opportunity to get his photo taken with the tennis star he considers to be one of the best in the business.
But it was not a snap with one of his fellow ATP pros such as Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer that he sought. Nor was he searching for a picture with a McEnroe, a Graf or a Navratilova.
No, the recent Australian Open champion was hunting down Dutch wheelchair player Esther Vergeer, a sports star who is unknown by most, but truly dominant in her sport.
Djokovic tweeted his picture with Vergeer to his 600,000-plus followers and also posted it on his website with the message: "Me and one of the women in tennis I admire the most,
Vergeer at Wimbledon in 2011 Esther Vergeer. She never lost a match since 2003."
It is no surprise that Djokovic holds Vergeer in such regard given her simply unprecedented sporting CV.
When the men's number one says that Vergeer hasn't lost since 2003, he's not lying. She has literally won every singles match she has played in the last nine years — that's 444 matches and counting.
During her career Vergeer has won 39 Grand Slam titles (20 singles and 19 doubles), as well as 22 year-end championships and five Paralympics titles.
She first reached world number one as an 18-year-old in 1999 and she hasn't left it since - despite now being 30.
After winning Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability award in 2008Between 2004 and 2006 she even went over two years without losing a set (winning 250 in a row).
So how does a player with so much success on her CV stay motivated?
"I love this game more than anybody. It's a lot of sacrifice, it's a lot of effort, but I do enjoy that," she told Marianne Bevis of The Sport Review .
"My main motivation is the inner game: I just love the sport, I love the training, but then also the way I see that I can improve in so many aspects still.
"Then there's the motivation of the Olympics: You have to set certain goals, and this year for sure I've set my goal - my mind - on the Olympics."
Vergeer became a paraplegic when she was eight years old due to an otherwise successful but risky surgery concerning haemorrhaging blood vessels around her spinal cord. She says that she longer sees herself as disabled.
"At the beginning, I didn't realise I'd be paralysed the rest of my life. I was little and in pain and in hospital and all those things together made me think that when I got home and I didn't have pain any more, I would be able to walk again," she told The Sport Review.
"But when I got back home, had to go back to school, play with my friends, it dawned on me it would be the rest of my life.
"In the beginning it's hard, of course, everything I did I compared with before: It was easier when I could walk, it was more fun when I could walk, so it was difficult.
"I guess sports, and the people around me, made me realise that the world doesn't end. Now I can do all the things that other 30-year-olds do so I don't see myself as a disabled."
No wonder Djokovic was so keen to get his picture taken with her.
Novak Djokovic posts a photo of him with Vergeer on his website
Vergeer in action with doubles partner Korie Homan at Wimbledon in 2009
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