For all of his Grand Slam championships and different titles, for all of his time at No. 1, Novak Djokovic actually, actually needed an Olympic gold medal for Serbia, the final important accomplishment lacking from his glittering résumé.
He lastly acquired one at age 37, and it doesn’t matter a bit how lengthy it took.
ESPN stories that Djokovic beat Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) in an enthralling and evenly matched males’s tennis singles ultimate on the 2024 Video games on Sunday.
“I put my coronary heart, my soul, my physique, my household — my the whole lot — on the road to win Olympic gold,” Djokovic stated. “Unimaginable battle. Unimaginable struggle.”
His spectacular profession already featured a males’s-record 24 Grand Slam trophies and essentially the most weeks spent atop within the rankings by any man or lady. It additionally already contained a Summer time Olympics medal, from 2008, however it was a bronze — and he made it clear that merely wasn’t adequate.
Till he acquired previous bronze medalist Lorenzo Musetti of Italy within the semifinals Friday, Djokovic was 0-3 in that spherical on the Video games. He misplaced to the eventual gold winner every time: Rafael Nadal at Beijing in 2008, Andy Murray at London in 2012, and Alexander Zverev in Tokyo three years in the past.
Earlier than dealing with Musetti, Djokovic stated, “I used to be like, ‘OK, let’s get by this one.’ That’s why as we speak, earlier than the match, I didn’t really feel as nervous as I’d usually really feel, as a result of I had secured a medal.”
In Paris, sporting a grey sleeve over the correct knee that required surgical procedure for a torn meniscus two months in the past, Djokovic confronted Nadal within the second spherical and eradicated his longtime rival in straight units. Now Djokovic is the oldest man to win the singles gold in his sport since 1908 — and he prevented Spain’s Alcaraz, who’s 21, from turning into the youngest.
