From losing to Rafael Nadal in Beijing to winning against Carlos Alcaraz in Paris: Novak Djokovic’s Olympics journey comes full circle

Between 2003 and 2023, Novak Djokovic won 24 Grand Slams, seven Year-end Championships, 40 ATP Masters 1000 titles, and recorded more than 400 weeks as the World No. 1, but no one said the Serb had "completed tennis" until recently.

To be more precise, the narrative changed on August 4, 2024, when he defeated Spain's Carlos Alcaraz in the final of the Paris Olympics men's singles event to win the gold medal.

It took Djokovic nearly three hours, two tiebreakers, and tiring side-to-side rallies to better one of the current best in the business, beating Alcaraz 7-6(3), 7-6 (2) on the storied Court Philippe-Chatrier at Roland Garros.

It was the Serb's fifth and probably final shot at the prestigious gold that evaded him for 16 long years. A journey that put him through the wringer, while he ascended to the top of mainstream tennis, began in the busy Chinese city of Beijing.

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Abjection: Falters against Rafael Nadal in 2008 Olympics SF

Rafael Nadal poses with his Olympic gold medal from Beijing 2008 (Getty)

Serbia looked at Novak Djokovic as a medal hope for the first time at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the year he claimed the Australian Open to open his Grand Slam tally.

He entered the Beijing draw seeded third after Roger Federer (1) and Rafael Nadal (2). In the head-to-head records at the time, he trailed Federer 6-2 and Nadal 9-3. Also, the Swiss had already secured 12 Grand Slam titles and the Spaniard five, whereas Djokovic cut a Lilliputian figure in the tennis world with his one Major trophy.

Moreover, Spain's Nadal was in red-hot form after securing the Channel Slam (French Open and Wimbledon) a few weeks earlier. Hence, the Serb wasn't expected to win gold.

Djokovic's journey in Beijing panned out as anticipated. He went past the likes of the USA's Robert Ginepri, Germany's Rainer Schuttler, Russia's Mikhail Youzhny, and France's Gael Monfils to reach the semifinals, where he met the 22-year-old Nadal.

Their semifinal meeting opened with Nadal taking the opener but the Serb fought back in dominating fashion to draw level. In the third set, he breathed down the Spaniard's neck for the most part until pulling out a horrible overhead, later dubbed the "Djokosmash", to lose the match point on his serve.

After having lost 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 despite winning 82 points, four more than his opponent, nothing but abjection came over Djokovic as he stood at the net with his head dropped to shake Nadal's hand.

All still wasn't lost for the Serb as he had the chance to redeem himself against the USA's James Blake, who downed Federer in the singles quarterfinals, in the match for third place. And he did just that, and stood on the podium with the bronze on his chest.

Being the third best, however, wouldn't have satiated Djokovic as Nadal and Federer, alongside whom he went on to form the formidable Big 3 in men's tennis, clinched gold medals in Beijing.

Nadal defeated Chile's Fernando Gonzalez in the singles final and Federer, after the unexpected end to the match against Blake, triumphed in doubles with fellow Swiss Stan Wawrinka.

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Bane: Bearing the flag, expectations, and Andy Murray in London

Juan Martin del Potro (L), Andy Murray (C), and Roger Federer (R) with their Olympic medals won at the 2012 London Games| Getty

By the time the London Olympics 2012 began, Novak Djokovic had earned his spurs on the tour by reigning as the World No. 1 for 53 weeks and winning the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US Open in 2011 and the Melbourne Major again in 2012, beating Britain's Andy Murray in the first final and Spain's Rafael Nadal in the other three.

Serbia saw in him a potential gold medalist and hence conferred on him the responsibility to bear the national flag during the Opening Ceremony. Bearing the country's flag at the quadrennial event is one great achievement an athlete cherishes the most and the Serb must have experienced the same.

Djokovic's good friend Maria Sharapova was denied the opportunity to carry Russia's flag at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Opening Ceremony by her national association. Shamil Tarpishchev, Russia's tennis chief at the time, argued:

"I don't want her to spend three or four hours in hot weather waiting to march in the opening ceremony. We want her to be fresh, not tired, during her matches." (via ESPN)

The Serb, however, accepted all the attention in London and it apparently changed into the bane of his campaign.

He entered the competition with the tag of gold-medal favorite and as the second seed, found himself in a tough draw that lined him up against Italy's Fabio Fognini, the USA's Andy Roddick, Australia's Lleyton Hewitt, and France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. But he overcame them all to set up a semifinal meeting with home-favorite Andy Murray.

Before their Olympic meeting, Djokovic and Murray had played 14 matches and the latter had caused Djokovic much trouble, with their head-to-head reading 8-6 in his favor.

For most of the semifinal, he matched Murray's level shot-for-shot but was broken in the 12th game of both sets under pressure from a seemingly unfavorable London crowd to lose 7-5, 7-5.

The 2012 Games brought more pain to Djokovic as Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro upset him 7-5, 6-4 in the bronze medal match.

Murray, on the other hand, went on to beat Roger Federer for the gold medal, meaning Djokovic found himself in fourth among the Big 4 (Nadal, Federer, Murray, and himself) in Olympic matters.

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Crying: Juan Martin del Potro strikes again in Rio

Novak Djokovic leaves the Rio Olympics 2016 in tears. (Getty)

After the London Olympics, Novak Djokovic added seven more Grand Slam titles and reached Brazil for the 2016 Olympics in peak form. This was his first time at the Games that he entered the men's singles draw as the top seed.

In the first round, he found himself pitted against Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro, against whom he was up 8-1 in their meetings on the tour since the bronze-medal battle in London. Hence, Serbia was hopeful once again.

However, del Potro struck again as he didn't even Djokovic to create a single break-point and claimed the match 7-6(4), 7-6(2), leaving the latter in tears.

The Serb's Olympic saga had hit rock bottom. His case among the Big Four worsened further as Andy Murray clinched his second Olympic singles gold in Rio. Also, Rafael Nadal doubled his golden tally by taking the prestigious medal in doubles alongside fellow Spaniard Marc Lopez.

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Desolation: Bottles it against Alexander Zverev in Tokyo

Novak Djokovic screams during his Olympic semifinal at Tokyo 2020 (Getty)

At Tokyo 2020, Djokovic entered an Olympic draw that didn't include any of his biggest rivals, namely Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, and Roger Federer, for the first time.

Moreover, he was the only Grand Slam champion among the 15 other participants in contention for the medal and had won the Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon already in 2021, making Serbia believe one more time.

He began by routing his competitors like a champion, beating the likes of Hugo Dellien Velasco from Bolivia, Jan-Lennard Struff from Germany, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina from Spain, and Kei Nishikori from Japan to reach an Olympic semifinal for the third time.

This time, his opponent was Germany's Alexander Zverev, whom he thrashed in the first set and was up 3-2 with a break in the second. But things went haywire in no time as Zverev staged a comeback of heroic proportions as the Serb could hold his serve only once for the remainder of the match that ended 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the German's favor.

Therefore, all that was left for Djokovic was consolation in the form of a bronze medal, that he already had from his exploits in Beijing (2008).

However, things touched a nadir as he failed to put Spain's Pablo Carreno Busta away, losing 6-4, 6-7(6), 6-3 to finish fourth. During the match, frustration gripped Djokovic's mind as he abused his racket twice in the third set.

First, he hurled it onto the desolate stands in Tokyo's Ariake Tennis Park after losing a point in the first game and then demolished one by smashing it against the net post on losing the third game.

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Euphoria: Novak Djokovic does it in Paris

Before coming to the 2024 Paris Olympics, Novak Djokovic saw three of his semifinal opponents in Beijing, London, and Tokyo end up with gold and Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro with silver in Rio. He, on the other side, stood without the top two ribbons.

Since the beginning of 2024, the 37-year-old had suffered his first-ever Australian Open loss at the hands of World No. 1 Jannik Sinner, lost to lucky loser Luca Nardi at Indian Wells, gone down to Casper Ruud for the first time in his career at Monte-Carlo Masters, got beat by 29th seed Alejandro Tabilo in Rome, lost an ATP 250 semifinal, torn the meniscus in his right knee, and been handed a straight-set thrashing by Carlos Alcaraz in the Wimbledon final.

Hence, with age, form, and fitness against him, he didn't convince many in Serbia to be the gold-medal favorite. But similar to 2008, his countrymen hoped for him to do well in Paris. Furthermore, he stepped inside the Olympic Village as a probable but, like in Beijing, a Spaniard in his early 20s was the frontrunner with the Channel Slam under his belt.

It felt like someone had rolled back the years but Djokovic didn't settle for a bronze this time. He downed Australia's Matthew Ebden, Spain's Rafael Nadal, Germany's Dominik Koepfer, Greece's Stefanos Tsitsipas, and Italy's Lorenzo Musetti to reach his first Olympic gold medal match.

A journey that began 16 years ago finally saw him with a real chance to repeat what his arch-rivals had done and he did it, against the odds. He defeated the 21-year-old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz 7-6(3), 7-6(2) by saving eight break points in the final that extended beyond 170 minutes.

Novak Djokovic celebrates with the Olympic gold medal in Paris (Getty)

Just like Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in Beijing and Andy Murray in London and Rio, Djokovic stood bathed in euphoria with a gold medal around his neck in Paris, as if his Olympics journey had come full circle.