- Tennis star Djokovic is the first Olympic champion
With immense determination, tennis superstar Novak Djokovic secured his first Olympic gold medal in his illustrious career filled with records. The 37-year-old won the thrilling and high-quality final at the Summer Games in France against French Open champion Carlos Alcaraz in a close match, 7:6 (7:3), 7:6 (7:2). In doing so, Djokovic became the successor to Tokyo Olympic champion Alexander Zverev and avenged his Wimbledon final loss to the 21-year-old Spaniard. After 2 hours and 50 minutes, Djokovic converted his first match point.
Djokovic's perhaps last chance
Djokovic was eager to erase the blemish of not winning an Olympic gold. His fifth Summer Games may have been his last chance, as he would be 41 years old in 2028 in Los Angeles. In front of around 15,000 spectators, the Serbian record Grand Slam winner won the duel against Alcaraz on the red clay in Paris by reaching his top level and sliding and sprinting across the court as if his knee injury from early June had never happened. This is his second Olympic medal, after bronze in Beijing in 2008.
Like Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, and Serena Williams, Djokovic has now achieved the Golden Slam in his career, winning all four Grand Slam tournaments and an Olympic gold medal. He stopped the winning streak of silver medalist Alcaraz, who had recently triumphed at the French Open and Wimbledon. Bronze went to the Italian Musetti, who defeated Zverev.
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 excitement. Djokovic had better chances than at the grass classic in London, where he had received a lesson over long stretches just weeks after his knee surgery. And indeed, a different match unfolded.
The first set lasted longer than Zverev's Olympic final
IOC President Thomas Bach and US tennis star Serena Williams initially sat next to each other in the front row and watched as the two protagonists fought bitterly for every game in the first set. The oldest (Djokovic) and youngest (Alcaraz) finalists in men's singles in recent Olympic history each let break chances slip away.
Alcaraz had to save two set points against losing the first set at 5:6, but also didn't let a set point against him at the same score phase him. Thus, the tension of the first set culminated in a tiebreak, which Djokovic decided with four consecutive points. The first set alone lasted 93 minutes, making it longer than the entire final three years ago in Japan, when Zverev barely gave the Russian Karen Khachanov a chance in just 79 minutes.
The second set continued the intense rallies and tension. Again, both finalists held all their service games, leading to another tiebreak. Once again, Djokovic was the better player in this decisive moment.
The final game of the Summer Games in Paris proved to be Djokovic's opportunity to secure his elusive Olympic gold, potentially serving as his final chance to achieve this feat. In this high-stakes match, Djokovic overcame a challenging adversary in Carlos Alcaraz, securing victory in a close match and claiming the final game as his own.
