Tennis superstar Novak Djokovic had a tough day at the job. At the Tokyo Olympics, Serbia lost two semifinals on the same day. As a result, his dream of capturing the Golden Slam in 2021, following a dominant run at Grand Slams, is over. The current world number one will have to wait another three years.
He lost his first match of the day in men’s singles to Alexander Zverev, then lost his second semifinal in mixed doubles with Nina Stojanovic to Elena Vesnina and Aslan Karatsev of Russia. The Serbians were defeated by the Russians 7-6 (7/4), 7-5. In the other match, Alexander Zverev of Germany upset Djokovic in the men’s singles tournament 1-6, 6-3, 6-1.
Djokovic would not be able to complete the Golden Slam (all four Grand Slams plus Olympic gold) in the same year if he lost this match. The loss comes after Djokovic won the Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon this year, and he now hopes to win the US Open, which starts in August.
Djokovic, who won bronze in the singles event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, claimed it was difficult to find solace in the prospect of repeating the achievement or completing a calendar-year Grand Slam by winning the US Open in September.
Djokovic said, “I feel so terrible right now, can’t be positive right now. I don’t know I feel terrible, in every sense. But tomorrow hopefully, a fresh start. I can recover and at least win one medal for my country. It’s just sport, you know, he played better. I got to give him credit for turning the match around. He served extremely well. I was not getting too many looks on the second serve. My serve just drastically dropped; I didn’t get any free points from 3-2 up in the second.”
