Djokovic breaks down another wall to advance to men’s tennis final

For the first time in his career, with 98 ATP titles, 24 Grand Slam titles and 428 weeks as number one, Serbian Novak Djokovic reached an Olympic final and broke the semi-final barrier.

In the four Olympic appearances that the 37-year-old tennis player from Belgrade has faced, he has never managed to fight for gold, the only goal he has left to achieve in his career. A great challenge that he is ready to fulfill in Paris. He completed the feat by beating Italian Lorenzo Musetti with scores of 6-4 and 6-2 on the Paris 2024 court.

In the previous editions, which he played in, he only reached the podium once. A bronze. It was in Beijing 2008, when he was eliminated in the semi-finals by Rafael Nadal, who would win the title two days later. Djokovic took third place on the podium, behind Nadal and the Chilean Fernando González, who took silver. The Belgrade player beat the American James Blake for third place.

More performances

In London 2012 he finished fourth, eliminated in the semi-finals by Andy Murray and by the Argentine Juan Martín del Potro in the fight for bronze. Four years later, in Rio 2016, his biggest Olympic setback occurred. He lost in the first round, beaten in an epic duel again by the tennis player from Tandil.

In the most recent, Tokyo 2020, Djokovic fell in the semifinals against the German Alexander Zverev, who was champion.

The curse seems to have ended in Paris. At least the wall before the final. In a match in which he showed obvious superiority, he left Musetti behind.

Emotion

“It’s a big thing for my country. I’m very excited about the Olympic final. I want to win gold in two days and I’m going to do everything I can to achieve it,” said the Balkan player, who after the quarter-final match said he was worried about his right knee, which he had surgery on last June.

“This is a great result for me in these circumstances. I was very nervous on court today, also before the match. I lost three of the four Olympic semi-finals I played in my career and I really wanted to overcome this obstacle,” Djokovic added.

Novak Djokovic, who claimed his 18th Olympic victory, more than anyone else, is aiming to become only the fifth player in history to compete in the Goldem Slam, that is, win all four Grand Slam titles and the gold medal. Only Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams have done it before.

Paris / EFE