Yes, it is now official: Novak Djokovic will not get a medal in these Tokyo Olympic games. He had been pursuing history, aiming to be the first man, and only the second person ever, to win what is known as the calendar "Golden Slam." That is when a tennis player wins all four Grand Slams, as well as the Olympic gold medal, in the same calendar year. Only two men have ever managed to achieve the feat in their career. Andre Agassi won the career Grand Slam, and won an Olympic gold medal, and Rafael Nadal also won all four Grand Slam titles, as well as Olympic gold. However, neither of them managed to do it all in the same calendar year. Djokovic was aiming for his first Olympic gold medal. It should be noted that Djokovic won a bronze medal in the 2008 games.
However, that dream ended days ago, when Djokovic fell short against German Alexander Zverev in their semifinal match. Zverev outlasted Djokovic to win the match 6-7 (6-8), 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (8-6), to advance to the gold-medal match.
Djokovic had to settle for the consolation bronze-medal Match, aiming for a second career bronze. Again, however, he fell short once again. Spaniard Pablo Carreno Busta bested in the bronze-medal match. 6-4, 6-7 (6), 6-3.
One thing that garnered a lot of attention was the outburst by Djokovic. He threw his racket up into the stands at one point, and later slammed his racket against the net holder, effectively destroying it. Those images have received a lot of attention, with Djokovic haters - and there appears to be a lot of them - delighting in his frustration and - in this tournament, anyway - his failure.
Zverev won the gold-medal match, defeating Russian Karen Khachanov in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1. In so doing, Zverev became the first German since Steffi Graf back in 1988 to win the gold medal in singles tennis.
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