Photo by CARL DE SOUZA/AFP via Getty Images
At 37 years old, Novak Djokovic finally has an Olympic gold medal, beating Carlos Alcaraz in the tennis men’s final in Paris.
Novak Djokovic has finally secured a gold medal for himself and for Serbia, besting Carlos Alcaraz of Spain in the final of the men’s singles tournament at the 2024 Olympics. Playing on the familiar clay courts of Roland Garros, Djokovic was the oldest male finalist in an Olympic tennis tournament – and is now the oldest male winner.
He needed a pair of tiebreaks to do it, but he downed Alcaraz in straight sets, 7-6(3), 7-6(2). The loss means Alcaraz, who came into the final as the youngest male finalist in an Olympic tennis tournament, will leave his first Summer Games appearance with a silver medal.
The Serb has a record 24 Grand Slam singles titles, but his previous best finish at the Olympics came back in 2008, when he secured a bronze medal. His other appearances at the games have been disappointing, and many considered it an uphill climb to emerge with gold this year given all the young talent and Djokovic’s own struggles this tennis season.
But he looked nothing like the injury-riddled 37-year-old who didn’t win any of the Grand Slams this year on Sunday. When he faced Alcaraz, a man who beat him in the finals of one of those very slams just before the Olympics began, he looked every bit of his No. 1 ranking.
Early in the match, Djokovic took advantage of Alcaraz’s aggressive play with punishing shots from difficult angles — his specialty. But though Djokovic threatened a quick break, Alcaraz fought it off and held to start. A couple games later, and Djokovic had a triple break opportunity, but this was handled by Alcaraz as well.
They went back-and-forth in that fashion for much of the first set. Djokovic kept hitting shots that looked like Alcaraz would have no chance to get to them, but he frequently did and put the ball back in play. Both players had trouble finishing the job with breaks on the line, though. No breaks were earned in 13 attempts, leading to a first set tiebreak, which was won by Djokovic.
The second set went very much like the first — both players refused to break despite several attempts on either side. Alcaraz had numerous forced errors as he frequently was able to make it to Djokovic’s shots, but couldn’t get his return in. They wound up going to another tiebreak, with Djokovic getting a point on Alcaraz’s first serve, setting the tone.
Djokovic and Alcaraz made it to the final after dispatching their surprise semifinal opponents in Lorenzo Musetti of Italy and Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada, respectively. That left Musetti and Auger-Aliassime to face each other for the bronze medal, which ultimately went to Musetti and Italy. He bested Auger-Aliassime in three sets on Saturday to claim the bronze, leaving Sunday’s match between Djokovic and Alcaraz the only unsettled business.
On their way to the semifinals, Djokovic and Alcaraz took on some top competition, but some very big names were left out. Two of the biggest in Germany’s Alexander Zverev and Norway’s Casper Ruud, both ranked in the top six, fell to Musetti and Auger-Aliassime in the quarterfinals.
In his quarterfinal match, Alcaraz downed American Tommy Paul in straight sets, ending the USA’s hope at getting a medal in the bracket. Djokovic had a similar straight sets victory over his quarterfinal opponent, the eighth-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas. He also faced Rafael Nadal in the second round, and took down the Spaniard in straight sets while both were dealing with injuries.
Going into Sunday’s final, Alcaraz and Djokovic had split six career meetings. That also included splitting the only two times they played each other on clay courts. While Djokovic, at 37 years old, is not likely to return to Olympic competition in four years time, Alcaraz should have more than enough time to add to his medal count at just 21 years old.
Full results for the medal matchups in the men’s singles bracket are below.
Gold medal match: No. 1 Novak Djokovic (SRB) def. No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz (ESP), 7-6(3), 7-6(2)
Bronze medal match: No. 11 Lorenzo Musetti (ITA) def. No. 13 Felix Auger-Aliassime (CAN)
