Olympic Games | Novak Djokovic achieves childhood dream and is crowned champion in Paris 2024: he beat Carlos Alcaraz in the final

Novak Djokovic cut the curse in a few Olympic Games and won the first gold medal of his long sporting career. He suffered, he sacrificed and in the end he won the long-awaited title that he needed.

The 37-year-old Serbian tennis player defeated the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz in a vibrant final at the stadium Philippe Chatrier of Roland Garros by 7-6 (3) and 7-6 (2).

In an exhibition between the two best players of the moment, the Serbian won in a fight that lasted two hours and 52 minutes to achieve the only success that was missing from his list of achievements. Alcaraz, in his first participation in the Olympic Games, won silver.

The bronze went to the Italian Lorenzo Musetti, who beat Canadian Felix Auger Aliassime on Saturday

Novak shook up in Paris

Novak Djokovic He can finally say that he is the champion of the Olympic Games. It was his last chance to win the title he needed. He had been preparing all year with the goal of winning that gold medal.

Olympic gold was conspicuous by its absence from the list of achievements Novak Djokovicthe only piece that the Serbian was missing to claim to be the best player of all time, a medal that he won at the Paris Games to complete all the horizons to which a tennis player can aspire.

When he became the player with the most Grand Slam of all time or the one that completed the most weeks at number 1, already had enough arguments to be the best in history, but there was still one loose end that the Spaniard Rafael Nadalhis greatest rival, did have.

From now on, Djokovic She can also boast of having won the Olympic title, achieved on the fifth attempt, after three lost semi-finals and a bronze, achieved in Beijing, which was almost a humiliation in the midst of so many successes.

At 37 years old, when everyone was predicting a declining career for him, the Serbian wante
d to settle that debt with his own record, to achieve the success that was denied to him, on a stage as glorious as the central court of Roland Garros and against a prestigious rival, the Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz, who many consider the best candidate to dethrone him.

His triumph in Paris not only equals him with Nadalmaking him the third man to treasure all four Grand Slam and Olympic gold, something that the American also achieved. Andre Agassi, like his compatriot Serena Williams and the German one Steffi Graf, which is the only one that achieved everything in the same year, 1988.

It was a condition so that no one would criticize his aspiration to become the best tennis player of all time, an honorary title for which he already had strong arguments, his 24 Grand Slams, at least three in each of them, his 428 weeks at number 1 in the world, his 40 Masters 1,000, his 99 titles on all surfaces.

He achieved it on the fifth attempt, after the bronze in his debut in 2008, his two fourth places, in London (where he lost against Andy Murray in the semi-finals and against Juan Martín del Potro for the bronze) and Tokyodefeated by Alexander Zverev and Pablo Carreño, and his failure in Rio, where he fell in the first round against Del Potro.

Many shots hit the post, but they made him the tennis player with the most victories in the Olympic tennis tournament, 19, but the final blow was still missing.

And he did it in the most uncertain year, a season in which he had not yet won any trophies, in which he had sparingly appeared on the court, prioritising the major tournaments, but without winning any.

He fell in the semifinals of Australiahad to retire injured in the knee in Roland Garros and lost in the Wimbledon final against Alcaraz, who equalled their head-to-head record with that victory. Djokovic regained the lead with four wins, compared to the Spaniard’s three.

But the Olympic tournament Paris was still marked in capital letters in his sights, as if it were the only way to complete the circle of an infinite list of achievements, which for the Serbian has a special meaning, that of playing for his country, something that always makes him transcend his own limits. In 2010 he gave his country the Davis cup. Olympic gold was missing.

That’s why he tried, despite those who already wrote him off, to become the oldest winner of a tennis gold since the sport returned to the Olympic programme in 1988 and the first to achieve it without losing a set.

Having become the first Serbian to win Olympic gold in tennis, Djokovic continues to close the gaps that are missing for him to hold all the records for a tennis player whose limits are running out.

SPORTS

With EFE.