![Novak Djokovic]()
Whatever your personal feelings are on Novak Djokovic, it's hard to deny at this point that he's edged out Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as the GOAT of men's tennis. The next likely challenger for that honor, Carlos Alcaraz, was Djokovic's opponent during Sunday's gold medal match at the Summer Olympics.
Alcaraz had beaten Djokovic in each of the last two Wimbledon finals, and already has three legs of the career Grand Slam at age 21. The textbook definition of a prodigy, whose path to his only missing major, the Australian Open, figures to get easier whenever the 1o-time champ Djokovic retires. Just their mere playing against each other today was the stuff of legend.
https://twitter.com/Olympics/status/1820024835910623699
About the only accolade missing from Djokovic's trophy case was the Olympic gold. After a couple tense, tightly contested sets against Alcaraz and two tiebreakers, he can add that to his resume.
https://twitter.com/rolandgarros/status/1820112945004884457
https://twitter.com/Big3Tennis/status/1820113748792578331
And I gotta say, as somebody who hasn't been the biggest personal fan of Djoker throughout his career, I was kind of blown away by his reaction to winning.
For as much of that as he's done in his incredible career,
this meant something more. Representing his home country of Serbia. The baggage of falling short in the Summer Olympics time and again. All to finally break through at 37 years old against somebody who denied him a potential eighth and ninth championship at Wimbledon. Once he blasted a forehand winner on match point, everything came pouring out of Djokovic as he celebrated his triumph.
https://twitter.com/NBCOlympics/status/1820114145083019521
https://twitter.com/BastienFachan/status/1820115512497733744
https://twitter.com/TommyBeer/status/1820114517793055065
The picture below might be the lasting image of Djokovic's Olympic victory. It serves as a reminder that all-time great athletes are people, too, which can be very easy to lose sight of especially these days.
https://twitter.com/TheTennisLetter/status/1820115028189839754
On the flip side, Alcaraz was understandably heartbroken, hoping to match his Spanish compatriot and doubles partner Rafael Nadal with a singles gold. Rafa topped the podium at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, and partnered with Alcaraz to reach the doubles quarterfinals in Paris.
https://twitter.com/TheTennisLetter/status/1820114870890852539
Alcaraz will have at least a couple more opportunities, maybe as many as four more, to get that gold. It's just really cool to see how much the Olympics mean to the biggest stars in tennis. Not sure it's necessarily reached "fifth major" status in men's golf just yet, but it sure feels that way in this particular sport.
Congrats to Novak Djokovic. Retirement speculation will persist, but let's just soak in the moment. Plus, if I were him, I wouldn't want to follow
Andy Murray's epic bow-out anyway.
https://twitter.com/TennisTV/status/1820113089972281701
