To win Olympic gold, men's GOAT Novak Djokovic hit one of his greatest shots ever

What are the greatest shots that the greatest men’s tennis player of all time, Novak Djokovic, has ever hit? Before Sunday, three came to mind right away.

First, there was his all-or-nothing crosscourt forehand return to save match point against Roger Federer in the 2011 US Open semifinals—it was known, once upon a time, as “The Shot.”

Second, there was his devastating crosscourt forehand pass against Rafael Nadal late in the fifth set of their 2018 Wimbledon semifinal.

Third, there was his even more devastating crosscourt forehand pass to save a championship point against Federer in the 2019 Wimbledon final.

Now you can add a fourth earth-shattering stroke to that list, and this one may go straight to the top. Again it was a crosscourt forehand. Again it came against one of his top rivals, this time Carlos Alcaraz. Again it happened late in a massive contest, at 2-2 in the second-set tiebreaker of the best-of-three-set Olympic gold-medal match.

And again, it made the difference in the outcome, and showed that Djokovic can take anyone’s best, and find a way to top it.

At 2-2, Djokovic and Alcaraz got into the type of intense, give-no-ground, fight-fire-with-more-fire baseline rally that had characterized this match. Normally, when Alcaraz turns these rallies into an exchange of forehands against Djokovic (or anyone else), he’s the one who terminates it with a blistering, heavy-spinning winner into the corner that leaves his opponent flailing futilely after the ball. And Alcaraz did hit a shot that looked, for a split-second, like it would do exactly that.

But not this time, not when Djokovic was trying to win something that had eluded him for 16 years. Instead of watching the ball go by him, the 37-year-old took a step back, wheeled his hips around, and tore through an even harder crosscourt forehand, at a more acute angle, that left his 21-year-old opponent with, for once, no way to respond. Djokovic had a winner, a mini-break and a 3-2 lead. He wouldn’t lose another point.

“I don’t know what to say, I’m still in shock, honestly,” said Djokovic after his nearly . “I put my heart, my soul, my body, my family, my everything on the line to win Olympic gold at age 37. I finally did it.”

Djokovic also did it by winning the best-played and most intensely fought match of 2024 so far, against an opponent who is 16 years younger, and who had looked 16 years younger when he routed him in three quick sets three weeks ago in the Wimbledon final.

What a difference those three weeks made.

As he had when they met at Roland Garros last year, Djokovic took the fight straight to Alcaraz. He countered the Spaniard’s more lethal power by moving forward, taking the ball early, serving and volleying, and never hesitating to pull the trigger. The points were frenetic. They drew both guys up and back and side to side. They were won with winners and forcing shots, rather than errors. There were 14 total break points—13 of them in the first set—but all of them were saved.

Djokovic won this match in three moments. The first came when he was serving at 4-4 in the first set. It was here when the match crested, and may have been decided. Alcaraz was in peak scrambling mode, making impossible get after impossible get, to the point where Djokovic could only smile and shake his head at his deathless young opponent. Five times Alcaraz reached break point, but five times Djokovic held him off by getting in the first strike. If Alcaraz had broken there, the set may have been his. But Djokovic wouldn’t let him break.

The other two decisive moments came in the tiebreakers, and each played out in similar fashion. In the first, the score went to 3-3, before Djokovic sent a (possibly mishit) forehand return of a second serve onto the sideline for a strange-looking winner. From there, Alcaraz made two straight unforced errors. In the second tiebreaker, the score went to 2-2, before Djokovic cracked the forehand winner I talked about above. Again, Alcaraz followed with two unforced errors, which sealed his fate.

In both sets, Djokovic and Alcaraz dueled evenly to the very end; both times, it was the kid who finally cracked.

“We almost played three hours for two sets. It was an incredible battle, incredible fight,” Djokovic said. “When the last shot went past him, that was the only moment I actually thought I could win the match. I mean I believed that I could win, but to actually win it, because he keeps on coming back. He keeps on asking me to play my best tennis.”

The win is a capstone to Djokovic’s career. It gives him his first gold medal for Serbia, and makes him a singles Golden Slammer alongside Steffi Graf, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams. Djokovic called it the final piece in his puzzle, and said it made him feel, finally, that he is “enough”—as a person and a player.

We talk about older legends “turning back the clock” when they perform the way they did when they were young. But rarely does it feel as literally true as it did on Sunday. Just last month, at Wimbledon, it looked as if Alcaraz had finally passed Djokovic by, and the Big Three era looked as if it were finally drawing to a close. That shift will happen someday. But for today, Djokovic’s ability to reverse the inevitable changing of the guard for one afternoon may have been the most remarkable aspect of his victory.

Or, you might say, it was just Djokovic being Djokovic. Whether he’s firing devastating forehands and finding ways to win against Federer, Nadal or Alcaraz, history says that when he wants something on a tennis court, he gets it.