Novak Djokovic Has FINALLY Done It!

after so many heartbreaking losses at the Olympics disappointments coupled with a devastating knee injury earlier this season after so many doubts by naysayers the crowning moment has arrived Novak jokovic has finally achieved what might be one of the biggest successes of his already illustrious career but just how did he get that elusive Olympic gold medal against all the odds since jokovic turned Pro in January 2003 it had always been his desire to win the gold medal in singles for his country and for 21 seasons on tour that didn't quite happen in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing jokovic was stopped by the eventual Champion Rafael Nadal in three sets Nole ended up winning the bronze medal in the match against the United States James Blake but it was little consolation for the Serbian who really wanted the Ultimate Prize Novak dared to dream again in 2012 at the London Olympics this time he battled past two former world number ones Andy ertic in Leighton hwit and had also beaten another strong player in Joe Wilfred sa in the quarterfinal but yet again jokovic fell at the semi-final hurdle this time losing to eventual Champion Andy Murray who was almost unplayable the whole tournament jokovic didn't even get a bronze medal constellation this time as he lost in straight sets to Juan Maran Del poo in the bronze medal match by the time the 2016 Olympics and Rio arrived Novak had already become arguably the best version of himself I'll admit it I'm not even sure anymore when the best version of Novak was because he's just evolving every minute but one thing's for sure in 2015 Novak had one of the greatest seasons in tennis history between 2015 and 2016 jokovic had completed the non-calendar Grand Slam he had 31 top 10 wins in 2015 a 15-4 record against the other members of the big four and had won 10 major titles he backed those performances up in 2016 when he completed the Nole slam won four Masters one th000 tournaments and had created an impossible to beat ranking point record of 16,950 points it was safe to say that as of June 2016 jokovic was Unstoppable the only thing left to win was the Olympics but Novak didn't even make it past the first round this time as the top seed he got stopped by a certain player who only made it to the tournament with a protected ranking but it wasn't just any player it was someone who had always been a constant threat to the big three Juan Maran Del poo beat jokovic and the Serbian couldn't help but let it out jovic absolutely devastated and his dream of an Olympic gold middle is gone now 29 years old jokovic knew that he didn't have many more chances left fast forward to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo which was actually held in 2021 because of the pandemic jokovic had just drawn level with the other members of the big three in the slam race but not just that he was on a quest for immortality jokovic wanted the calender Grand Slam Lam he had already won the Australian Open French Open and Wimbledon but it wasn't enough he wanted everything and his desperation would lead to a costly mistake not able to resist the idea of going for the gold medal again jokovic decided to participate in the Olympics which was totally understandable but then he also decided to play in the mixed doubles having already played and won so many tournaments all year jokovic had far more mileage than any of his other Rivals stretching his physical limits and entering into Uncharted Territory Nole against the wishes of Serbia's Olympic team Coach Victor Troi and against the wishes of the entire team decided to participate in mixed doubles jokovic managed to reach the semi-finals in singles unscathed winning all of his matches in straight sets but we were about to witness some unbelievable scenes facing an inform Alexander verev jokovic looked to be on top as he led by a set in a break but then he lost a staggering 10 games in a row to lose the match I remember watching that semi-final and wondering what the heck was going on with him his performance was flat and it seemed like he finally reached his physical limits and just couldn't play tennis anymore Zev ended up beating Karen hainov in the final no disrespect to hainov but I'm sure jokovic would have had his number if they played after yet another heartbreaking loss Victor Troy revealed that Novak was devastated mentally emotionally and physically the pressure of being so close to making history and the physical strain took a toll on on him Novak ended up losing his semi-final match in mixed doubles with his compatriot Nina stanovich and then had to pull out of the bronze medal match due to an injury before then losing the bronze medal singles match to Pablo coreno Busta oh I should totally mention that the playing conditions in Tokyo were very tough it was hot and humid and he was playing two matches a day in those conditions let's also remember that the extreme heat in Tokyo saw Spain's Paula Bosa retire from her quarterfinal match and leave the court in a wheelchair while Medvedev warned the Umpire that it was so bad that he could die jokovic had even called for organizers to schedule matches later in the day when the weather was slightly cooler yet still he decided to push himself in an attempt to win two gold medals Nole ended up leaving Tokyo with none and he also fell short at the final hurdle at the US Open in what was an eventual heartbreaking loss to meddev so was there going to be one last chance at Redemption at the beginning of the year Novak set out his goals for 2024 and the Olympic were a major priority but no's 2024 wasn't going exactly as planned in fact it was quickly becoming one of the worst seasons of his entire career he was beaten at his Fortress at the Australian Open by Yanik sinner got upset by a couple players was sick got hit by a water bottle suffered a devastating injury that caused him to withdraw from the French Open after the fourth round underwent surgery for his knee managed to reach the final at Wimbledon but was run out of the building by Carlos alarz the doubts crept in for many fans would his knee hold up in Paris he hadn't even gotten a single top 10 win this year or better yet won a title this year also one would think that jokovic would have liked his chances on hard courts or grass for the Olympics but playing on Clay worked in his favor which only serves as another reminder that jokovic is arguably in the top two or top three best clay quarters of all time also after losing convincingly to alcaraz in The Wimbledon final many fans just couldn't see Novak as the favorite for the golden medal Novak faced 36-year-old double specialist Matt ebden in the first round ebden entered the tournament as an alternate following huna's late withdrawal ebden hadn't even played a singles match since June 2022 and his reaction knowing that he was facing jokovic in round one was hilarious Novak ended up beating ebden six love 61 in under an hour and ebden joked that it was the perfect way to retire his singles career officially although Novak's win meant that he became the player with the most Olympic singles match wins there weren't many takeaways from the match in terms of assessing jovic's form and fitness because he played an opponent who was literally no match for him but he was about to face the greatest clay Court player of all time in the next round someone who'd won 14 Roland G's titles on the surface we all know Rafa is a shadow of his former self considering all the physical struggles he's been through the match was significant though for many reasons it was their 60th meeting and possibly their last A fitting way to end arguably the greatest or should we say most prolific rivalry in men's tennis for much of the match jokovic seemed to always be a full Step Ahead he punished short balls from Nadal taking full advantage of the spaniard's limited movement Novak also Drew out errors from the King of Clay with great depth on his balls as he blitzed through the first set to serve Nadal a bread stick jokovic picked up right from where he left off and continued with his ruthless display of aggression in the second set breaking Nadal twice and holding serve to race to a four of lead however things were about to get tricky jokovic got tight and seemed to be under a lot of pressure despite being on top he had a poor service game which ended in a double fault to give Nadal one of the breaks back at this point Nadal had already turned on the heat and was causing problems for Novak but jokovic would then kill off any thoughts of a comeback by breaking back and serving for the set overall he needed less than two hours to get the job done as he bullied his arch rival on Philip chatrier these were the stats after the match jokovic said he panicked Midway through the second set and had to gather himself and ignore the Rafa chance from the crowd unfortunately we didn't get to see vintage Nadal and the Spaniard himself admitted after the match that he didn't have the quality of shots that he needed and also didn't have the same legs like he had 15 years ago when asked about his future Rafa who's already tired of these questions said he'll decide when it's time jokovic was up against German's Dominic coper in the third round and the first set was close until coper played two loose points at 5 56 to hand over the opening set to jokovic the second set was more straightforward for jokovic who got the job done once again in straight sets but the biggest takeaway for me though was that jokovic would definitely need to get more from his second serves as he progressed to the later stages of the tournament a 38% win percentage on the second serve was probably not going to cut it against more elite players now through to the quarterfinal Nole was up against a familiar foe in Stephano sitti pass an opponent he's defeated 11 out of 13 times and also was 5-0 against on clay in my opinion this might have been jovic's worst match of the tournament he never really looked comfortable despite taking the first set 63 jokovic seemed edgy at times and soon found himself down love four in the second set jokovic also hurt his knee in the second and had to call the physio twice the top seed ended up breaking back and saving three set points to take the set to a tie break which he eventually won both players hit more unforced errors than winners and didn't get the most from their serves but in the end jokovic was the much better player and cyas was left to Ru his Miss chances now at this point we were all worried about no's knee with not a lot of recovery time between matches jokovic made it clear that he would do everything possible to fight through the next two matches even if it meant going against the doctor's advice we then saw a different Novak against Lorenzo musetti in the semi-final jokovic brought the most aggressive version of himself and produced his best performance of the tournament up to that point you could see jokovic which agitated at many points during the match he had never been past the semi-finals at the Olympics so safe to say it was a pretty big deal for him the first set was pretty even up until 54 when MTI was serving to stay in the set but jokovic made his move for the kill and finally converted one of the five break points he had in the set to take it 6'4 the second set came and both players exchanged breaks in the first four games however musetti never managed to hold sered once throughout the set 64 62 your final score despite jok of putting on a brilliant performance MTI had his chances and as usual played a number of these insane points but his game pretty much fell off in the second set now into the final jokovic celebrated like he just won a major and you could tell just how much this meant to him jokovic had taken this route to the final but he was up against a player who had just won back-to-back slams is a future all-time great and the current best player in the world and Carlos alarz alcaraz meanwhile had taken this route to the final and this was what was on the line for both players jokovic had what looked like an impossible task in the final but he had waited for this moment his entire life the match began and right away you could tell that there seemed to be a reverse from what we saw at the Wimbledon Final in terms of the aggression levels at Wimbledon it looked like Nole was trying too hard to force things going for high-risk shots but this time it was alcaraz Who Came Out Swinging and going for the lines which led to more errors from him jokovic relied more on his movement and precision and was particularly Keen to get alcaraz running wide to his forehand to draw out more errors knowing that alcaraz is prone to making more of these mistakes on clay and it worked after the first six games Carlos already had twice as many unforced errors as Nole 10 to five as he continued to go for the lines and let his racket fly Novak on his part couldn't buy a first serve early on in the match but he was clutch on second serves with service winners just when he needed them Novak faced numerous breakpoint opportunities in the set but saved all of them using a similar tactical approach that we're going to talk about soon the first set dragged into a tie break which jokovic won after raising his level even more at three all he hit a clean forehand crosscourt winner on alcaraz's second serve and then hit two perfect first serves to dominate and win the next two points before finishing off the set with a well anticipated forehand volley drop shot the first set alone lasted an hour and 35 minutes in the second set both players picked up from where they left off but jokovic was now serving much better and was especially lethal on the forehand drawing out forced errors from alcaraz especially on the forehand to forehand exchanges but alcaras was also having easy holds in some service games so there weren't many breakpoint opportunities so we went into another tie break and yet again jokovic played one of the best tie breaks we'll ever see with the tie break level at two all and in an extended rally jokovic hit one of the best running forand of his entire career from an impossible position for a crosscourt winner it was like a sucker punch for alarz and the Spaniard didn't win another Point here are the match stats on the screen 14 breakpoint opportunities for both players but no breaks of serve and what was surely one of the greatest two set matches of all time I also wrote down some of my takeaways from the match if we take a look at all eight break points Nole saved they were all on the ad side and there was a pattern to it the first one was a slice serve up the tea to make alcaraz moved to the ball just because the pace wasn't going to cut it the second one was a servant volley on alcaraz's backhand side jokovic went with Pace down the te on the third break point after seeing that alcaraz moved closer to the Baseline and he got the service winner the fourth break point was yet another slice serve up the tea which led to some scrambling from alcaraz and Novak eventually won the point on the fifth break point it was yet another slice serve up the tea to alcaraz's forehand which put noie in Prime position for a serve plus one the sixth break point was on a kick serve out wide the seventh was another slice serve to draw out a short return from caritos caritos managed to get into the rally for this one but fluffed his lines with a low percentage backhand down the line and finally the eighth break point was another kicker out wide the point being that jokovic was smart enough to know that the easiest way to solve the alcaraz puzzle would be to get the most from his Serve by studying Carlos's return position and the adjustments he made Novak knew exactly what to do if Carlos stood further away from the Baseline Novak would go for the slice to draw him in and when alcaras stands at the Baseline Novak goes for for power or for the kick serve out wide the strategy paid off big time because alcarez couldn't even get into the rallies on many of those points it just tells you that jovic's spot serving is still one of his major weapons especially since his movement is no match for alcaraz's raw Firepower these days alcarez on his part will be left reeling at the missed opportunities he was a bit impatient and impulsive at times and he later said that the pressure of trying to win the gold medal for his country got to him I also think that the surface favored Novac that alcarez is a bit more prone to mistakes on clay with the surface giving jokovic that much needed extra time to draw out errors from the Spaniard jokovic pinned alcaraz with deep back hands and then offered running forehands as the concession knowing that alcaraz could be rushed on that stroke Nole knew exactly what he wanted to do and he stuck to that game plan ultimately the match was decided by two tiebreakers and Novak proved once again that he was able to find his best tennis when it mattered most I haven't seen him hit forehand that aggressively all year the way he did in both of these tie breaks overall there were a total of 19 points in both tie breaks the Joker only missed one first serve return and one running forehand while hitting seven winners which is crazy Carlos on the other hand made six errors missed a return and only hit three winners himself but it wasn't because Carlos played terribly in those tie breaks he just happened to meet a guy who was determined not to give in this wasn't the typical lockdown mode from jokovic it just goes to show that when Novak really wants want something he's going to get it regardless of who's across the net it also shows that jovic's best tennis is still capable of beating CER and alcaras even on the biggest stages in the sport the Olympics were the missing piece of the puzzle but the funny thing is is that even without the Olympics jovic's Legacy was already secure but being the perfectionist that he is he wanted everything for himself what a player and what a person too he says the gold medal is one of the biggest successes in his career when when I take everything in consideration this probably is the biggest sporting success I've I've ever had in my career this is Novak's first top 10 win of the year and it's also his first title of the year the gold medal totally salvages the Serbian 2024 season and once again Novak now leads alcaras 4 to3 in their highly entertaining head-to-head it's so impressive to me because Novak with two functional knees couldn't even reach a final all year then his knee gets screwed up and he returns with a Wimbledon final and an Olympic gold medal was that on anyone's bingo card Novak is now the first player to win the Olympics without dropping a set and the oldest Olympic singles champ in history oh and I should also mention that Nole is the only player in tennis history to win every Grand Slam every Masters 1000 tournament the ATP finals and the Olympic gold medal not to mention the career Super Slam literally everything he's the only player to complete a career sweep of all the big titles it's Checkmate and you only have to look at the comments from former players on jokovic being the goat jokovic has conquered tennis so now what Nole continues to close in on most ATP singles Title by any male player I wouldn't be surprised if he sets his eyes on that in the future which is crazy because he has way more big titles he isn't just cherry-picking any tournament just to get that record he's solely focused on the big titles the man is on a mission to get every record possible a record tying fifth US Open is also on the line for Novak this summer who knows whether he still wants to go for that record tying eth Wimbledon title next year or compete in the doubles at the 2028 Los Angeles games and get another gold medal or maybe even smash some record we haven't even thought about yet at the end of the day I feel like motivation is going to be the biggest determinant on how jokovic finishes out his career he could wake up one day like Pete Sampras after winning a major and decide to call it quits or just keep crushing records like he's Gathering Infinity Stones but one thing's for sure his Olympic gold medal win at the Paris games this year is going to go down as one of the greatest motivational stories in tennis history but what were your biggest takeaways from Novak's gold medal win at the 2024 Olympics and what are your future predictions moving forward I also just made a video on the biggest Lessons Learned at the Olympics where I covered all the other players and before I sign off I'm excited to announce our new Courtside Discord I've wanted to do this for a while now and it's a place where we can all come together to talk tennis and you'll have the opportunity to chat with me me directly about the sport We Love by joining you're not just getting access to a great Community you're also supporting the channel and helping us create more great content if you're interested in being a part of this just click the link in the description to join us I can't wait to see you there