With wins at the Australian Open, Roland Garros and Wimbledon earlier this year and simple victories on the way to the semi-finals at this Olympic tournament, the Golden Slam became more and more tangible for Novak Djokovic.
Also in the semi-final against world number five Alexander Zverev, the Serb initially seemed to continue on that momentum. After a set of one-way traffic and two accompanying breaks, Djokovic steamed on to win 6-1. An exasperated Zverev did not hang his head. On the contrary!
At a crucial moment in the second set, the German went through the service of Djokovic. The twenty-time grand slam winner was able to get rid of a first set point, but at the second set point he was served broken: 3-6.
The first set loss at this tournament knocked Djokovic out of his lead. Zverev made the most of some hard-earned set points and also held on to his own serve – albeit with difficulty: 0-4 and a desperate primal scream from Nole as a result! Djokovic could win one more game, but he won’t take much credit from that: 1-6 and Zverev sizzling to the final. After the match, the German let his tears run free.
A Golden Slam is therefore not in the cards for Novak Djokovic, but he can brighten up his Olympic tournament with gold in mixed doubles (in which he will play the semifinals later today) and a bronze medal in singles.
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In the final, Zverev will face the Russian Karen Khachanov. To date, a quarterfinal at Roland Garros in 2019 and four ATP finals won (in Paris, Marseille, Moscow and Chengdu) have been his greatest nobility.
In his semifinal against Spaniard Pablo Carrenño Busta, he made the difference with his overwhelming serve: he hit ten aces and won 93% of all points on his first serve on his way to an all in all simple victory (6-3, 6 -3).
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