Novak Djokovic finally claims Olympic gold with gruelling, attritional win over Carlos Alcaraz
Updated . First published at
Novak Djokovic has finally claimed the one tennis title that had long avoided his grasp, winning gold in the men's singles in Paris to complete a career golden slam.
The Serb defeated second seed Carlos Alcaraz in straight sets, but the scorecard doesn't tell the full story of what was an attritional, close match.
Both sets went tiebreaks as neither player was able to break, but it was the 24-time major winner who was able to find a little bit extra with the score at 6-6.
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Djokovic collapsed to all fours after winning match point. Getty
Djokovic embraces his daughter Tara in the crowd after winning the gold medal match. AP
Djokovic collapsed onto all fours after winning match point, when he became just the third men's singles player to complete the career golden grand slam, alongside Rafael Nadal and Andre Agassi.
Having never made it past the Olympic semi-finals before, there were tears from Djokovic after sealing his win, as well as from Alcaraz, but his eyes were far dryer once the gold medal was finally in his hands.
The first set was a gruelling, 90-minute affair but an equally brilliant display of claycourt tennis, with the top two seeds both coming agonisingly close to breaking without success.
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A combined 13 break points went begging, with Alcaraz in particular left to rue the eight he left unconverted.
It wasn't until 3-3 in the tiebreak that Djokovic was able to blow the set open, claiming the mini-break and the subsequent three points to take the opener.
The second set wasn't much different.
Both men refused to allow the other an easy service game over nearly an hour and a half but equally failed to break, although there were far fewer clear-cut opportunities – only one break point, compared to the first set's 13.
Again, the tiebreak was the first time that Djokovic found some breathing space, getting the mini-break on the very first point and another shortly afterwards, which proved enough to finally secure his place at the top of an Olympic podium.
Earlier, Italy's Lorenzo Musetti toppled Felix Auger-Aliassime in the bronze medal match to secure third place.
More to come.
