NOVAK DJOKOVIC completed tennis as he fulfilled a 16-year quest to have an Olympic gold medal placed round his neck.
Serbia’s sporting superstar, 37, arrived at the Athletes’ Village in Saint Denis a few weeks ago having won nearly everything significant in his sport.
His unmatched success at Grand Slams have seen him surpass his great rivals Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal and means he is considered by many to be the Greatest Of All Time.
The one thing missing was the Olympic title for his country and in every Olympic cycle since 2008 – in the cities of Beijing, London, Rio and Tokyo – he had ultimately come up short in his mission.
That is no longer the case after he managed to get one over Carlos Alcaraz in Paris in two hours and 50 minutes, gaining a small measure of revenge for that Wimbledon Centre Court final defeat on July 14.
An unforgettable 7-6 7-6 victory on the red clay of Roland Garros, in a match for the ages, could end up being a stunning coup de grace to arguably the best career we have witnessed in the men’s side of the game.
In the build-up, one wag on social media had joked that Alcaraz was on a mission to ‘save’ tennis for a third time in an eight-week block.
First, the 21-year-old prevented the unpopular and arrogant Alex Zverev from winning the French Open as he fought from 2-1 down in sets.
Next up, those from the ABN (Anyone But Novak) brigade would have been happy that he stopped the Belgrade icon from equalling Federer’s tally of eight Wimbledon Championships.
That is a wee bit harsh on Djokovic – who was sporting a protective knee sleeve – and to be fair the attendees on Court Philippe-Chatrier were reasonably well-split with just as many Serbian flags as there were Spanish ones.
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This was a different crowd to those who watch the French Open annually – much noisier and rowdier and with a crying baby to add to the drama – but it made for a much better atmosphere.
This was a magnificent match and the margins of error were as fine as they had ever been in their six previous encounters.
This rivalry, defined by a 16-year age-gap, is one of the most spectacular we have ever seen.
Some of the rallies were spellbinding to watch, this was edge-of-the-seat stuff and often the crowd rose to their feet to afford these racquet-welding gladiators a standing ovation for their gallant efforts.
There were 13 break-point opportunities in the first set but neither man could make that decisive in-road on their opponent’s serve.
A tie-break was required to resolve matters and after Djokovic had enjoyed a mini break with a wondrous forehand return, he moved a set closer to glory.
When he converted the first of three set-points with a stretched volley at the net, Djokovic stood still and raised a clenched fist.
The match clock showed 93 minutes – it was one of the longest sets ever witnessed in Olympic history.
The second set went with serve through 12 games and you could see how much it meant to Djokovic – and how tight it was all getting – when he argued with the umpire on a serve call.
In the second tie-break, Djokovic achieved one of his proudest moments when his forehand down the line sailed past Alcaraz.
