Novak Djokovic’s dreams of a historic Golden Slam in Tokyo are OVER after world No 1 suffers stunning semi-final defeat by emotional German Alexander Zverev… before getting knocked out in the doubles as well!
Novak Djokovic declared he felt ‘terrible’ after his search for an historic ‘Golden Slam’ ended in an extraordinary slump at the hands of Alexander Zverev.
The world No 1 was cruising towards the Olympic men’s singles final, a set and a break up, and his opponent had just smashed a ball over the roof of the court in frustration. Then Djokovic’s game fell apart. He proceeded to lose 10 games out of 11, including four service games in which he won a total of just five points.
‘You’ve got to give [Zverev] credit for turning the match around,’ said Djokovic, who immediately lost a mixed doubles semi-final, too, ‘He served extremely well. My serve just drastically dropped. My game fell apart.’
Novak Djokovic has been eliminated in the semi-finals in Tokyo by Germany’s Alexander Zverev
By the time Zverev closed out the fourth of the consecutive service breaks to win the match, Djokovic appeared resigned to defeat.
It was the end of a dream of becoming the first man to win all four majors and an Olympic singles gold medal in the same calendar year. Only Steffi Graf has achieved the feat in the women’s game.
He had certainly appeared motivated, heading out onto Centre Court two hours before his semi-final, to send down serves in the broiling heat.
He won the first set at a cruise and Zverev, the world No 5, had hammered his racket in frustration before a break sent him 3-1 down in the second set.
Djokovic cut a furious figure as the world No 1 went on to lose the decider in stunning fashion
Zverev fought back brilliantly to win the second set and then routed Djokovic to reach the final
But, seemingly in desperation, the German then began chancing big serves and bold passing shots, which came off. Djokovic’s game collapsed, with 14 unforced errors from him in a second set during which was uncharacteristically struggling to land his first serve.
‘I was not getting too many looks on the second serve. I didn’t get any free points from 3-2 up in the second set,’ he said.
Zverev said he had been playing ‘nice tennis’ in the first set. ‘But against him it’s never really going to work because he’s going to out-rally you every time. After I lost my serve in the second set, I was just going to swing through a little bit more with my shots.
After stunning Djokovic, the emotional victor Zverev had then broke down in tears on the court
‘I know that he was chasing history and the Golden Slam and you can’t win everything. I told him at the end: “You are the greatest of all time.” I’m sorry that I won today but It was nice to win for once against him.’
The tight schedule put Djokovic back out court within an hour to play a mixed doubles semi-final with Nona Stojanovic. They lost in straight sets to Russians Elena Vesnina and Aslan Karatsev, with Djokovic still showing no range.
The No 1 seed now faces two bronze medal matches in the same day on Saturday. ‘Let’s see. I feel terrible right now in every sense,’ he said.
‘Tomorrow is hopefully a fresh start. Hopefully I can recover and win at least one medal for my country.’
‘Zverev will play the Russian world No 35 Karen Khachanov in the singles final.
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