Novak Djokovic finally adds an Olympic gold to his resume by beating Carlos Alcaraz in a thrilling final

PARIS (AP) — Despite all his Grand Slam championships and other titles, despite all his time as No. 1, Novak Djokovic desperately wanted an Olympic gold medal for Serbia, the last major achievement missing from his glittering resume.

On Sunday, he finally got one at the age of 37, when he defeated Carlos Alcaraz 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) in a thrilling and evenly matched final of the men’s tennis singles at the 2024 Olympic Games.

In a sense, it doesn’t matter how long it took, of course. Djokovic is an Olympic champion now and always will be. And in another sense, the years of waiting, the stumbles along the way, made him appreciate this triumph as much as — no, more than — any other, which is why his hands shook and his tears flowed as he knelt on the red clay of Court Philippe Chatrier at the end.

“All things considered, this is probably the greatest sporting success I’ve ever had in my career,” said Djokovic, who has not lost a set in Paris and is the oldest man to win the Summer Games tennis title since 1908. “This is beyond anything I imagined, anything I hoped to experience, anything I could feel.”

With differences so small that it felt like any mistake could decide the outcome, Djokovic was at his best when the stakes were highest, dominating both tiebreakers against Alcaraz, who beat him in the Wimbledon final three weeks ago.

“In the exciting moments, in the difficult situations, in the tiebreaks, he played an impressive match,” said silver medalist Alcaraz, the 21-year-old Spaniard who also wept after failing to become the youngest male singles gold medalist. “That’s why I saw that he was hungry for the gold medal. He was going to go for it.”

Djokovic already holds a men’s record of 24 Grand Slam trophies and the most weeks at the top of the rankings by a man or a woman. He also had an Olympic medal, from 2008, but it was a bronze — and he made it clear that it simply wasn’t enough. He kept talking about how important the gold was to him this past week, and in recent months — and Alcaraz said Sunday that he kept hearing about it.

Until he faced Paris bronze medalist Lorenzo Musetti of Italy on Friday, Djokovic was 0-3 in Olympic semifinals, having lost to the gold medalist each time: Rafael Nadal in Beijing in 2008, Andy Murray in London in 2012 and Alexander Zverev in Tokyo three years ago.

This time, Djokovic said, “I was ready.”

In Paris, Djokovic wore a gray sleeve over his right knee, which he had to undergo surgery on two months ago for a torn meniscus. In the second round, he faced Nadal and knocked out his old rival in three sets.

The 2 hour and 50 minute final was contested by Djokovic, one of the best ever – and the “highest mountain to climb at the moment”, in Alcaraz, as Djokovic called it.

There was great ball-striking, deft drop shots and great sprinting, sliding, stretching defense. The No. 1 seeded Djokovic saved eight break points, No. 2 Alcaraz saved six. Pressure? Ha. What pressure?

“We both played at a very high level,” Djokovic said. “We really fought neck and neck.”

The only shame, perhaps, for the fans — and of course Alcaraz — was that the Olympics used a best-of-three-set format, rather than the best-of-five format of Grand Slam tournaments. The crowd in the stands became part of the show, breaking out into choruses of “No-le! No-le!” or “Car-los! Car-los!” that often overlapped, creating an operatic fugue. As Alcaraz attempted a comeback, his supporters chanted “Si, se puede!” (essentially, “Yes, you can!”).

Yet between performances it was as quiet as in a theatre. The performance was briefly postponed when the cry of a small child pierced the air, which was full of expectation.

The first set alone lasted more than 1 1/2 hours, filled with epic shots and epic games. One set lasted 18 points over a dozen mesmerizing minutes en route to that tiebreaker, when Djokovic took the final four points and then turned to his guest box — where his tennis team and his wife and their two children were sitting — with a fist in the air.

In the second tiebreaker, after Djokovic hit a cross-court forehand winner on the run to set up a 10-shot point for a 3-2 lead, he waved his arms to cheer on the crowd that was crowing. Soon, thanks to a final forehand winner, he had finally won the prize he wanted.

When the Serbian anthem ended, Djokovic took his gold coin and brought it to his lips for a kiss.

Was he afraid that moment would never come?

“There are always doubts. Absolutely, I had doubts,” Djokovic said. “But the belief and the conviction that I can do it is stronger than my doubts. It has always been like that. I knew it would happen. It was just a matter of when it would happen.”