Novak Djokovic and his wife Jelena are donating €1m through his Foundation to buy ventilators and medical equipment for medical institutions and hospitals in Serbia.

“The fight is not easy, numbers are not pleasant, but I am convinced that we will manage to make it out of this stronger than before,” he told the Serbian media. 

“It is important to remain united in this fight, to help each other, so we can defeat this virus faster and easier. We would like to use this opportunity to invite everyone else to join us and help numerous families and people who need help to survive and get healthy again.”

The World No 1 and his wife revealed the donation with a video on Instagram and Twitter.

He said: "We have spent the past several weeks gathering every piece of necessary information on COVID-19 in order to make this informed decision on how my family could make the biggest and best impact on our country. People from the Republic of China have given us tremendous help and support, we cannot thank them enough."

The gesture by the 32-year-old echoes that of tennis rival and friend Roger Federer, who this week announced he would be donating £860k to vulnerable families in Switzerland.