For the first time in his illustrious career, Serbia’s Novak Djokovic can call himself an Olympic champion.
The 37-year-old knocked off Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) in a thriller at Roland-Garros Sunday to win the gold medal that has eluded him. He won a bronze in his first-ever Olympics back in Beijing 2008 but had never reached a gold-medal final.
“Yes! It is,” Djokovic told NBC’s Britney Eurton, when asked whether the gold medal was the missing piece to his career puzzle. I’m always telling myself that I’m enough because I can be very self-critical, and that’s probably one of the biggest battles internally that I keep fighting with myself: that I don’t feel like I’ve done enough, that I haven’t been enough in my life, on the court and off the court.
“So it’s a big lesson for me. I’m super grateful for the blessing to win a historic gold medal for my country, to complete the Golden Slam, to complete all the record.”
Djokovic is also the oldest male player to win an Olympic gold in tennis, knocking off the 21-year-old Alcaraz, who was the youngest player to reach the men’s final.
The 24-time Grand Slam champion completed the “Golden Slam” — winning all four major titles and Olympic gold across a career. He joins Steffi Graff, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, and Serena Williams as the only players to achieve this rare accomplishment.
There was some concern about Djokovic’s knee, which was injured during the French Open. He suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee and had surgery on June 5.
During his quarterfinal match against Stefanos Tsitsipas, he experienced sharp pain despite coming away victorious. However, he pushed through and knocked off Lorenzo Musetti in the semifinal.
