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Novak Djokovic ended his career-long quest for an Olympic gold medal in sublime fashion as he defeated Carlos Alcaraz, the poster boy of modern tennis, in the men's singles final in Paris. With the result, he also put an end to his title drought in the 2024 season.
From the turn of the year till July, Djokovic failed to secure any trophies: his worst first seven months in a season since 2006. In July that year, he won the first ATP title of his career, the Dutch Open.
In 2024, Djokovic lost in the semifinal at the Australian Open, Monte-Carlo Masters and the Geneva Open, got beaten in the third round at Indian Wells and Rome, and withdrew from the quarterfinals at the French Open due to a meniscus tear in the right knee.
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None of his colleagues, however, beat Djokovic the way Alcaraz did in the Wimbledon final three weeks ago.
The Serb was outpaced, outmaneuvered and outsmarted on several occasions by the Spaniard, who in the final recorded his fastest serve of the tournament: 136 mph (218.8 km/h).
Alcaraz overwhelmed Djokovic with his power several times (watch 0:19 and 10:42 in the video attached below). The Spaniard also troubled him with his agility in defense, especially when he approached the net (4:43, 6:20, 7:02, and 9:06 in the video).
He created a staggering 14 break points on Djokovic's serve, converting five. Alcaraz also hit 42 winners to finish the battle 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(4) in less than 150 minutes.
On Sunday, August 4, Djokovic turned the tide to claim a 7-6(3), 7-6(2) win in the Olympics final at Roland Garros. He held his serve throughout the match, with eight break-point saves.
How did he do it? Let's find out what the Serb improved in a matter of 21 days.
Shift in mentality
Novak Djokovic made history in 2023 by equaling Margaret Court's record of 24 Grand Slam titles, overtaking Roger Federer with a seventh Year-end Championship, and breaking Steffi Graf's record 377 weeks at World No. 1.
However, the 2024 season saw a dip of unforeseen proportions in his graph, as he remained trophyless till July.
During the French Open, it emerged through former Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli that the Serb was struggling to motivate himself to travel across the globe leaving his wife and kids behind. Bartoli said:
"I was lucky enough to have a discussion with one of his staff. The biggest problem they have to deal with Novak at the moment is that there are days when he wakes up with his motivation intact, and there are days when he wants to be with his wife, his children, to take them to school, to lead a normal life, to be at the beach, to enjoy and to tell himself that he has accomplished everything.
"He oscillates between these two emotions and that's why sometimes he's completely absent from the court. One of his coaches told me that the match in Rome, he didn't want to play while in training, he was very good." (as quoted by We Love Tennis)
Djokovic then came to Wimbledon with his wife Jelena, son Stefan, and daughter Tara. He made it to the final against Alcaraz.
Still, Djokovic didn't seem fully dialed in during the tournament. Someone who tuned into the final early would have seen him sharing a chuckle with Alcaraz while joking about who walked ahead of the other through the SW19 doorway.
Alcaraz was off the blocks immediately, breaking him in a long first game that saw 19 points. In the post-match presser, Djokovic accepted that that game tipped the scales in the youngster's favor.
"The first game was… incredible, one of the longest first games I’ve ever played and that set the tone," he said.
At the Paris Olympics, Djokovic apparently didn't make eye contact with Alcaraz inside the Roland Garros tunnel ahead of the final. He occupied himself with his kitbag while his teammates wished the Spaniard luck before walking to their seats.
And the story started differently. He served first again but went 1-0 up after just five rallies. On top of that, he gave Alcaraz a hard time in the following game, extending it to 11 points and creating a breakpoint as well.
The tone set was different this time.
Different style of play
Anyone who followed the 2024 Wimbledon men's singles final point-to-point would have seen Djokovic adopting an uncharacteristic style of play. He often rushed to the net to shorten the rally against the young Alcaraz, sacrificing his stronghold in composure from the baseline. The tactic, however, didn't pay off much.
He came to the net 53 times but won just 27 times, averaging 51 percent on net point conversion. As mentioned above, Alcaraz outdid him up the court with agility and strength to record a 73 percent (16/22) net point conversion.
In Paris, Djokovic looked unrushed and approached the net less frequently, but with more conviction. This resulted in an increased net point win percentage of 67 (24/36) for the Serb.
Doing away with the hastiness also helped Djokovic induce more unforced errors from the World No. 3 as the rallies were extended. Alcaraz, prone to erring due to his high-risk high-reward style of play, racked up unforced errors.
The Serb hadn't exploited this Alcaraz tendency at Wimbledon. For comparison, the 21-year-old's unforced errors tally stood at 24 in the Wimbledon final and 33 at the Games, despite playing one set fewer.
Force on the forehand
Another thing Djokovic did better in the Paris Olympics final was neutralizing Alcaraz's pace by returning the Spaniard's forehand with interest.
Djokovic did have more time at his disposal to line up for his shots, as the ball doesn't skid on clay unlike grass. To add to that, however, he was able to generate pace on tough angles brilliantly.
Alcaraz crushed his forehand with extreme speed at Wimbledon several times, but was at the receiving end of the same in the gold medal match in Paris. Memorably, Djokovic opened the second set tiebreaker with a cross-court forehand that the Spaniard couldn't reach.
A few points later at 2-2 in the tiebreaker, he landed an even heavier blow. A relatively long rally ended with a biting forehand from the Serb.
Alcaraz couldn't win another point for the remainder of the match; Djokovic secured the next five to clinch his first Olympic gold medal.
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