PARIS – For all of his Grand Slam championships and other titles, for all of his time at No. 1, Novak Djokovic really, really wanted an Olympic gold medal for Serbia, the last significant accomplishment missing from his glittering resume.
He finally got one at age 37 on Sunday, beating Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) in an enthralling and evenly matched men’s tennis singles final at the 2024 Games.
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In a sense, it doesn't matter one bit how long it took, of course. Djokovic is now an Olympic champion and forever will be. And in another sense, the years of waiting, the stumbles along the journey, made him appreciate this triumph as much as — no, make that more than — every other, which is why his hands trembled when he knelt on Court Philippe Chatrier's red clay at the end and why his tears flowed.
“When I take everything into consideration, this probably is the biggest sporting success I ever had in my career,” said Djokovic, who didn't drop a set in Paris and is the oldest man to win the Summer Games tennis title since 1908. “This kind of supersedes everything that I imagined, that I hoped that I could experience, that I could feel.”
With margins so thin that any mistake felt as if it could tilt things, Djokovic was at his best when the stakes were highest, dominating each of the two tiebreakers against Alcaraz, who beat him in the Wimbledon final three weeks ago.
“In the close moments, in the difficult situations, in the tiebreaks, he played an impressive game,” said silver medalist Alcaraz, the 21-year-old from Spain who sobbed, too, after falling short of becoming the youngest male singles gold medalist. “That’s why I saw that he’s hungry for the gold medal. He was going to go for it.”
Djokovic already owns a men's-record 24 Grand Slam trophies and the most weeks spent atop in the rankings by any man or woman. He also already owned an Olympics medal, from 2008, but it was a bronze — and he made it clear that simply wasn't sufficient. He kept talking over the past week, but also the past months, about what a priority the gold was for him — and Alcaraz said Sunday he kept hearing about it.
Until getting Paris bronze medalist Lorenzo Musetti of Italy on Friday, Djokovic was 0-3 in Olympic semifinals, losing to the gold winner each time: Rafael Nadal at Beijing in 2008, Andy Murray at London in 2012, and Alexander Zverev in Tokyo three years ago.
This time, Djokovic said, “I was ready.”
In Paris, wearing a gray sleeve over the right knee that required surgery for a torn meniscus two months ago, Djokovic faced Nadal in the second round and eliminated his longtime rival in straight sets.
The 2-hour, 50-minute final featured one of the best to ever do it, in Djokovic — and the “highest mountain to climb at the moment,” in Alcaraz, as Djokovic put it.
There was superb ball-striking, deft drop shots and tremendous sprinting, sliding, stretching defense. The No. 1 seed Djokovic saved eight break points, No. 2 Alcaraz saved six. Pressure? Ha. What pressure?
“We both played at a very high level," Djokovic said. "We really went toe-to-toe.”
The only shame, perhaps, for the fans — and, naturally, Alcaraz — was that the Olympics uses a best-of-three-set format, instead of the best-of-five at Grand Slam tournaments. Those in the stands became part of the show, breaking out into choruses of “No-le! No-le!” or “Car-los! Car-los!” that often overlapped, creating an operatic fugue. As Alcaraz attempted to mount a comeback, his supporters chanted “Si, se puede!” (essentially, “Yes, you can!”).
Yet the place was as quiet as a theater between points; play was delayed briefly when a young child’s crying pierced the air that was thick with anticipation.
The first set alone lasted more than 1 1/2 hours, full of epic shots and epic games. One lasted 18 points spread over more than a dozen mesmerizing minutes on the way to that tiebreaker, when Djokovic grabbed the last four points, then turned to face his guest box — which included his tennis team and his wife and their two children — with a fist held high.
In the second tiebreaker, after Djokovic laced a cross-court forehand winner on the run to cap a 10-shot point for a 3-2 lead, he waved his arms to encourage the folks standing and screaming. Soon, thanks to one last forehand winner, he had earned that prize he wanted, at long last.
When the Serbian national anthem finished ringing out, Djokovic reached for his gold and brought it to his lips for a kiss.
Was he worried that moment would never arrive?
“There are always doubts. Absolutely, I had doubts," Djokovic said. “But the belief and the conviction that I can make it is stronger than my doubts. It always has been. I knew that it’s going to happen. It was just a matter of when it’s going to happen.”
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games