PARIS — For all of his Grand Slam championships and different titles, for all of his time at No. 1, Novak Djokovic actually, actually wished an Olympic gold medal for Serbia, the final important accomplishment lacking from his glittering résumé.
He lastly bought one at age 37 on Sunday, beating Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) in an enthralling and evenly matched males’s tennis singles last on the 2024 Video games.
In a way, it would not matter one bit how lengthy it took, after all. Djokovic is now an Olympic champion and perpetually shall be. And in one other sense, the years of ready, the stumbles alongside the journey, made him recognize this triumph as a lot as — no, make that greater than — each different, which is why his arms trembled when he knelt on Court docket Philippe Chatrier’s purple clay on the finish as his tears flowed.
“After I take every part into consideration, this most likely is the largest sporting success I ever had in my profession,” mentioned Djokovic, who did not drop a set in Paris and is the oldest man to win the Summer season Video games tennis title since 1908. “This sort of supersedes every part that I imagined, that I hoped that I might expertise, that I might really feel.”
With margins so skinny that any mistake felt as if it might tilt issues, Djokovic was at his finest when the stakes have been highest, dominating every of the 2 tiebreakers in opposition to Alcaraz, who beat him within the Wimbledon last three weeks in the past.
“Within the shut moments, within the tough conditions, within the tiebreaks, he performed a powerful recreation,” mentioned Alcaraz, the 21-year-old from Spain who sobbed, too, after falling wanting turning into the youngest male singles gold medalist. “That is why I noticed that he is hungry for the gold medal. He was going to go for it.”
Djokovic already owns a males’s-record 24 Grand Slam trophies and essentially the most weeks spent atop the rankings by any man or lady. He additionally already owned an Olympics medal, from 2008, nevertheless it was a bronze — and he made it clear that merely wasn’t enough. He saved speaking over the previous week, but in addition the previous months, about what a precedence the gold was for him, and Alcaraz mentioned Sunday he saved listening to about it.
Earlier than he confronted Paris bronze medalist Lorenzo Musetti of Italy on Friday, Djokovic had been 0-3 in Olympic semifinals, shedding to the 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.
This time, Djokovic mentioned, “I used to be prepared.”
In Paris, sporting a grey sleeve over the fitting 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.
The two-hour, 50-minute last featured the most effective to ever do it, in Djokovic — and the “highest mountain to climb in the intervening time,” in Alcaraz, as Djokovic put it.
There was excellent ball-striking, deft drop photographs and super sprinting, sliding, stretching protection. The No. 1-seeded Djokovic saved eight break factors, whereas No. 2 Alcaraz saved six. Stress? Ha. What strain?
“We each performed at a really excessive degree,” Djokovic mentioned. “We actually went toe-to-toe.”
The one disgrace, maybe, for the followers — and naturally, Alcaraz — was that the Olympics makes use of a best-of-three-set format, as an alternative of the best-of-five at Grand Slam tournaments. These within the stands grew to become a part of the present, breaking out into choruses of “No-le! No-le!” or “Automotive-los! Automotive-los!” that usually overlapped, creating an operatic fugue. As Alcaraz tried to mount a comeback, his supporters chanted “Si, se puede!” (primarily, “Sure, you’ll be able to!”).
But the place was as quiet as a theater between factors; play was delayed briefly when a younger kid’s crying pierced the air that was thick with anticipation.
The primary set alone lasted greater than 1½ hours, stuffed with epic photographs and epic video games. One recreation lasted 18 factors unfold over greater than a dozen mesmerizing minutes on the best way to that tiebreaker, when Djokovic grabbed the final 4 factors, then turned to face his visitor field — which included his tennis staff and his spouse and their two youngsters — with a fist held excessive.
Within the second tiebreaker, after Djokovic laced a cross-court forehand winner on the run to cap a 10-shot level for a 3-2 lead, he waved his arms to encourage the oldsters standing and screaming. Quickly, thanks to at least one final forehand winner, he had earned that prize he wished, in the end.
When the Serbian nationwide anthem completed ringing out, Djokovic reached for his gold and introduced it to his lips for a kiss.
Was he fearful that second would by no means arrive?
“There are all the time doubts. Completely, I had doubts,” Djokovic mentioned. “However the perception and the conviction that I could make, it’s stronger than my doubts. It all the time has been. I knew that it will occur. It was only a matter of when it will occur.”