Djokovic Completes Career Grand Slam with Olympic Gold

Serbia’s Novak Djokovic defeated Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz, seven games to six (seven to three), seven games to six (seven to two) in a thrilling match on Sunday at Court Philippe-Chatrier to claim his first gold medal and become the oldest men’s Olympic singles champion at the age of thirty-seven.

Djokovic was recovering from minor meniscus surgery, but you would not have known it watching the first set, which was a truly epic back-and-forth battle. He saved eight break points against the twenty-one-year-old Alcaraz, who had defeated him in the Wimbledon final just three weeks earlier.

The second set was equally thrilling, with the crowd alternating between “Novak! Novak!” and “Carlos! Carlos!” chants as the two men exchanged points.

Suitably, it came down to a second tiebreak, with Djokovic striking a forehand out of Alcaraz’s reach for the victory. At that moment, he fell to his knees in celebration, before making his way into the stands to celebrate with his family.

With a record twenty-four Grand Slam singles titles, ninety-eight career titles, and a record four hundred and twenty-eight weeks at the top of the ATP rankings, Djokovic has reached the pinnacle of men’s tennis. The Olympics were the only true gap in his impressive resume. He won bronze in two thousand and eight (Beijing) before missing the podium three times in a row, finishing fourth in two thousand and twelve (London) and two thousand and twenty-one (Tokyo) and suffering a shocking first-round exit in two thousand and sixteen (Rio).

This victory – over the reigning French Open and Wimbledon champion, no less – surely strengthens his case as the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) over Roger Federer, who never won Olympic singles gold, and Rafael Nadal, who won in two thousand and eight. Nadal, who lost to Djokovic last week, can no longer hold his gold medal over him.

Within tennis circles, winning a gold medal does not hold the same significance as winning a Grand Slam due in part to the sport’s sixty-four-year absence from the Games (nineteen twenty-four to nineteen eighty-eight) and the best-of-three sets format. But perhaps Djokovic’s title will be viewed differently given he won at a Grand Slam venue against a four-time Grand Slam champion.

Then again, perhaps it will not: He did not face a single top-ten player en route to the gold medal match (number eleven Stefanos Tsitsipas was his highest-ranked opponent), and the men’s singles field – while relatively strong – did not include world number one Jannik Sinner, who withdrew due to tonsillitis.

Alcaraz, the youngest man ever to play in a men’s singles final, now adds Olympic silver to his four major titles – all before his twenty-second birthday. While he failed to win in Paris, it was a tournament he will never forget: playing Djokovic in the final and playing alongside Nadal in what were perhaps his idol’s final matches at Roland-Garros.

With Sunday’s victory, Djokovic improved his record to four wins against three losses against the young Spaniard, who is undoubtedly the future face of the sport and would likely be the present face if not for the legendary Serb who refuses to retire.

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