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A champion at 24 career majors, Novak Djokovic has joined a club that is incredibly elite and exclusive; so rare is the membership that he is just the fifth person to be admitted.
Novak is now a member of the Career Golden Slam Club which began when tennis returned to the Olympic Games as a full medal sport in 1988. The other members are Rafa Nadal, Serena Williams and husband and wife combination Stefanie Graf and Andre Agassi, who were also the first two members.
In two hours 50 minutes Djokovic defeated Carlos Alcaraz 7-6, 7-6. It was their seventh meeting and proved to be lucky seven for Novak who now moves slightly ahead in their head-to-head at 4-3. Carlos had won their previous match which was the Wimbledon final just three weeks before.
Incredibly this is his first title of the year, his "slowest" start to a season since 2006 his first year on the tour, but it is the 99th title of his career.
"It's hard to describe," Djokovic said. "I'm just so proud to be a part of an elite number of athletes that managed to win gold for their countries in their respective sports. They probably are the only ones that can really understand this feeling. I was so blessed to win everything pretty much there is to win in my sport, but this is something different. This supersedes everything that I've ever felt on the tennis court after winning big trophies. It's just incredible joy."
This was the first meeting between a pair of top five players at the Olympic tennis event this year and the result ended a three-match losing streak Djokovic had against players in the top five. And because the final was decided in straight sets, Novak has become the first player to win the men's gold medal, since 1988, without dropping a set the whole event.
He has also become the oldest man at 37 years 74 days to win the gold medal (since 1988) but he is the third oldest ever at the Olympic tennis event which was one of the original sports in 1896. Had Alcaraz won he would have been the youngest to do so at 21 years 91 days.
The Spaniard, in his first Olympic games, played well but was in tears at the end. There were some wonderful returns and rallies played and Alcaraz had more winners, but it was Djokovic's serve that played a big role and there were two crosscourt forehand winners that he struck in the second set tiebreaker that were possibly and probably the points of the match.
"It was emotional," Alcaraz said. "It wasn't the result that I wanted, but I have to be really proud of myself for the level that I played during the whole tournament, and for the level that I played today. I had a really difficult and tough opponent in Novak. He played an unbelievable game, from the first ball and to the last one, so I have to give credit to him. It means a lot to bring a medal to Spain. To have a medal is an incredible feeling that I have to enjoy. I just need to realise that not every day I win a medal."
The singles bronze medal was claimed by Lorenzo Musetti, he defeated Felix Auger-Aliassime 6-4, 1-6, 6-3. Musetti became the second Italian and the first in 100 years to win an Olympic medal; the only other time was also in Paris in 1924 when Umberto de Morpurgo also won a bronze.
In the men's doubles Australia with Matt Ebden and John Peers captured the gold medal by defeating Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram, who claimed silver, 6-7. 7-6, 10/8 in two hours and two minutes. It was the first time the four players had shared the court in any combination, and the Aussies made it the seventh time those from Down Under had won Olympic medals.
The bronze medal went to Taylor Fritz and Tommy Paul over Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek 6-3, 6-4. Machac had won gold in the mixed doubles with Katerina Siniakova over China's Zhang Zhizhen and Wang Xinyu 6-2, 5-7, 10/8. The mixed bronze went to Felix Auger-Aliassime and Gabriela Dabrowski 6-3, 7-6 over Wesley Koolhof and Demi Schuurs.
For Ebden and Peers it was come from behind tennis the whole final and the victory made them the first Australians to win a tennis gold medal since the legendary team of Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde in Atlanta in 1996.
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