Emotional: Novak Djokovic © APA/afp / CARL DE SOUZA

Djokovic crowns his legendary career

With immense willpower, superstar Novak Djokovic has secured his first Olympic gold medal in his record-breaking tennis career.

August 04, 2024

From: dpa

The 37-year-old won the thrilling and high-class final at the Summer Games in France against French Open champion Carlos Alcaraz by a narrow 7:6 (7:3), 7:6 (7:2). Djokovic thus crowned himself the successor to Tokyo Olympic champion Alexander Zverev and took revenge for the Wimbledon final he lost against the 21-year-old Spaniard. After 2 hours and 50 minutes, Djokovic converted his first match point.

Djokovic was determined to overcome the stigma of not winning an Olympic gold medal. His fifth Summer Games might be his last chance, as he would be 2028 years old in Los Angeles in 41. In front of around 15.000 spectators, the Serbian record Grand Slam winner won the duel with Alcaraz on the red clay in Paris because he reached his top level and slid and sprinted across the court as if the knee injury from early June had never happened. It is his second Olympic medal after bronze in 2008 in Beijing.

A historic success

Like Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams, Djokovic has now achieved the Golden Slam in his career, consisting of triumphs at the four Grand Slam tournaments and the Olympic victory. He thereby stopped the success of silver medalist Alcaraz, who had recently triumphed at the French Open and Wimbledon. Bronze went to Lorenzo Musetti.

Three weeks after the Wimbledon final, the atmosphere on Court Philippe-Chatrier was great from the start, with a small brass band and drummers adding to the heat. Djokovic had thought he had better chances than at the grass court classic in London, where he had been given a lesson for long stretches just a few weeks after his knee operation. And in fact, the match turned out to be completely different.

IOC President Thomas Bach and US tennis star Serena Williams initially sat next to each other in the front row and saw how the two protagonists fought doggedly for every game in the first set. The oldest (Djokovic) and the youngest finalist (Alcaraz) in the men's singles in recent Olympic history both missed break opportunities.

Djokovic ice cold in the tiebreaks

Alcaraz had to serve twice to avoid losing the first set, but was not disturbed by a set point against him at 5:6. The tension of the first set culminated in the tiebreak, which Djokovic won with four points in a row. The first set alone lasted 93 minutes.

The thrilling rallies and tension continued in the second set. Again, the two finalists held all their service games and again it went to a tiebreak. Once again, Djokovic was the better player in this decisive moment.