Throughout all of his Grand Slam victories and other accolades, and throughout his tenure at the top of the rankings, Novak Djokovic longed for Serbia to win an Olympic gold medal—the final noteworthy feat omitted from his impressive record.
At the age of 37, he attained one. It doesn't really matter how long it took. In the thrilling and equally matched men's tennis singles final of the 2024 Games on Sunday, Djokovic defeated Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2).
"To win Olympic gold, I put everything on the line—my body, my spirit, my family, and my heart,” Djokovic declared. Amazing tactic. Amazing fight.
His remarkable career has already produced the most weeks at the top of the rankings for any man or woman, as well as a men's record 24 Grand Slam championships. A 2008 Summer Olympics medal was also inside, but it was only a bronze, and he made it plain that wasn't good enough.
It was Djokovic's third consecutive loss in that round of the Games until he defeated Italy's bronze medalist Lorenzo Musetti in the quarterfinals on Friday. All three times he lost against the eventual gold medalist, Andy Murray in London in 2012, Rafael Nadal in Beijing in 2008, and Alexander Zverev in Tokyo three years ago.
Djokovic remarked before playing Musetti, "I was like, 'Okay, let's get through this one.'" Because I had already won a medal, I did not feel as anxious before the game as I usually would have.
In Paris, with a gray sleeve to cover his injured right knee from a meniscus tear sustained two months prior, Djokovic took on Nadal in the second round and defeated his enduring foe in straight sets. Djokovic has now become the oldest person to win the gold medal in his sport since 1908, stopping 21-year-old Alcaraz of Spain from doing so.
Djokovic turned to face his supporters in the grandstand, where he was seated in front of his wife and their two kids, dropped his racket, and knelt on the clay as he had secured the victory and the gold. He wept and covered his face, still as impassioned as ever, then got up and picked up a red, white, and blue Serbian flag.
Through sobs, silver medallist Alcaraz remarked, "He gave it an extra push in the tough moments." "Losing like this aches."
The match, which took two hours and fifty minutes to complete even though it was decided in just two sets, was a repeat of the Wimbledon final that Alcaraz won three weeks prior as a follow-up to his June French Open victory.
Alcaraz also triumphed against Djokovic in the All England Club final of the previous year, but Djokovic prevailed when they faced off in the 2023 French Open semifinals, the yearly clay-court competition hosted at Roland Garros, the tennis venue for these Olympics.
The match on Sunday included one of Djokovic's greatest ever, as well as the greatest one going right now in Alcaraz. It may have been annoying for Djokovic to see himself facing a younger, faster player again on the other side of the net. Perhaps this explains why Djokovic kept looking up, making gestures and muttering to his guest box.
He still prevailed, though.
"To be honest, I only truly believed I could win the match when the final shot went through and past him," Djokovic remarked.
The most impressive thing, maybe, was how well both men performed given the difficulty of the situation and the skill of the opposition.
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