Mumbai: Hangovers can be hard to deal with, especially those that come after an Olympic gold medal. Some take days, weeks, even months, shutting down seasons, bodies and minds to step back and fully process their dreams come true.
For Novak Djokovic, the Olympic Games were more than just a dream. It bordered on despair when four strokes were not enough to give his country and himself the medal that the Serb longed for more than anything else. And when the 24-time Grand Slam champion finally got the golden touch in his cabinet in Paris, he experienced “probably the most intense emotions I’ve ever had on a tennis court,” as he said in retrospect on Saturday.
Djokovic spoke shortly after entering Arthur Ashe Stadium for Kids Day wearing the Olympic gold medal around his neck, 20 days after wearing it on the podium in Paris. He brought a gold-colored gym bag with him for Sunday’s practice.
The 37-year-old may still be slightly hungover, but he is just as hungry as he heads to the US Open, which begins on Monday.
To win his 25th Grand Slam, overtaking Margaret Court and leaving an unparalleled mark on his legacy, which now includes Olympic gold. To defend the title is something no men’s singles champion has managed to do in 16 years at the US Open since Roger Federer in 2008. To continue his six-year winning streak of winning at least one Grand Slam in a season.
The last point is equally relevant because, at this stage of his career, Djokovic is only concerned with success in Grand Slam tournaments. This is the first time since 2017, the year he was plagued for a long time by an elbow injury, that Djokovic enters the season-ending Grand Slam tournament without having previously won any of the three tournaments.
In this respect, it was a paradoxically strange season for the Serb. With the Olympic gold, he staged the “greatest success and greatest highlight of my career” – as he put it on Saturday. But otherwise he had little to write home about. Djokovic had one of his worst starts to the season, losing a semi-final (Australian Open) and a final (Wimbledon) to his younger challengers Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz respectively, and tore the meniscus in his right knee at the French Open. The Olympic victory is actually the 99-time ATP title holder’s only triumph this season.
That’s why for the statistical GOAT, who is used to collecting trophies, “the goal” remains to last until the end of this US Open. That’s why, less than three weeks after his most emotional final appearance ever, he will play the first round of the US Open against Radu Albot in the evening session on Monday.
“People ask me, ‘Now that you’ve basically won everything with the gold medal, what’s left to win?’ I still feel the drive. I still have the competitive spirit. I still want to make more history,” Djokovic said.
“Grand Slams are the pillars of our sport. So if you are not motivated and inspired to play your best tennis at Grand Slams, it is difficult to achieve that elsewhere.”
It has indeed been difficult for Djokovic to turn up and play anywhere else in the days following the Olympics, so he will move straight from the clay courts of Roland Garros to the hard court of Arthur Ashe Stadium, having last played a hard court event in Indian Wells in March.
Alcaraz also found it difficult to show up and be himself at the preparatory tournament for the US Open. The French Open and Wimbledon winner of the season lost to Djokovic in two close sets separated by tiebreaks and lost the Olympic gold. It was enough for the Spaniard to win silver, but the defeat hurt. The 21-year-old took the injuries with him to Cincinnati, slamming his racket while Gael Monfils beat him in what he considered to be the “worst match” of his career.
Sinner, the world number one, is going through one of the most difficult periods of his career. Not in terms of performance – he comes into the US Open as the Cincinnati champion – but in dealing with the perceptions surrounding the saga of his positive tests earlier this year. The 23-year-old Italian spoke about it for the first time in New York with composure and composure, and he will have to show all of that on the court as the talk continues to go far in this US Open.
The two young players have shared the three Grand Slam titles this year, each of them defeating a generational force that not so long ago was considered indestructible on such stages. “This kind of rivalry that I have with Jannik and Carlos in particular are the kind of pairings that I still enjoy competing against,” Djokovic said.
Both Sinner and Alcaraz are a little vulnerable at the moment, and Djokovic is on an unparalleled high while still feeling an insatiable hunger.
