At 37 and already a tennis superstar, Novak Djokovic wins first Olympic gold medal

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Serbia's Novak Djokovic reacts to beating Spain's Carlos Alcaraz to win gold after their men's singles final tennis match at the Roland-Garros Stadium Sunday during the Paris Olympics. It was Djokovic's first-ever gold medal. / AFP via Getty Images

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PARIS — Novak Djokovic is used to winning on tennis's biggest stages.

He's the all-time leader for most Grand Slam men's singles titles (24). He's just one of three men to hold all four Grand Slam championships simultaneously. When he won the French Open last year, he became the first man to win each Grand Slam event — the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open — at least three times.

But at 37, there was one elusive title that escaped him during his long and glorious career: Olympic champion.

That drought ended Sunday at famed Roland-Garros stadium where the number-two ranked player has had so much success before. In straight sets (both won in a tiebreak), Djokovic ended the match when he swatted a forehand winner against Spain's Carlos Alcaraz. The crowd erupted.

The righthander, who started playing tennis when he was four and turned professional more than two decades ago in 2003, shook hands with Alcaraz and then collapsed onto the red clay court. On all fours, he began sobbing and shaking. The intensity of his emotion was surprising.

This tennis superstar who has winning records against the greats like Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, and who had won so much in his career now had the one title that eluded him for far too long: an Olympic gold medal. He'd won a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But the last thing missing from an otherworldly tennis resume had escaped him.

Against the young Spaniard who won the French Open on this same court in June and who beat the Serbian last month at Wimbledon to claim his fourth grand slam, the victory here in Paris meant something to Djokovic.

He came achingly close at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 when he attempted to do something no man has done before: claim the 'Golden' Slam. That's winning all four Grand Slam tournaments and an Olympic gold medal in a single year. Under pressure to do the unbelievable, he came up short, losing in the semifinals. Now a total of five people have won career golden slams (Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams and now Djokovic)

In Paris, none of the past mattered. Djokovic was golden.