The Olympics 2020 men’s singles tennis tournament did not turn out the way many people expected. No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic, who had looked like a shoo-in to win his first Olympic gold with main rival Rafael Nadal opting not to play, did not even finish on the podium after a disastrous meltdown in his last two matches.
Instead, Alexander Zverev took home the gold medal to give Germany its first men’s singles gold medalist in Olympic history.
Zverev overcame Karen Khachanov, who was one of two men from the Russian Olympic Committee to take home a medal in tennis.
Read on below as SBOTOP recaps the biggest stories in the now-concluded men’s tennis tournament in the Tokyo Olympics.
Alexander Zverev grabs gold for Germany
Germany’s Alexander Zverev won the gold medal after beating the ROC’s Karen Khachanov in straight sets, 6-3 6-1, in the final.
Zverev’s service game was on point in the final. He had six aces, put 69 per cent of his first serves in play, and won 84 per cent of those first serve points. He was equally impressive in the return game as he won 69 per cent of return points and converted four out of eight break points.
Zverev, who also came from behind to beat world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the semi-finals, became the first German singles player to win gold in the Olympics since Steffi Graf in 1988 and the first male singles player ever to claim gold. German great Boris Becker and Michael Stich had won gold in the doubles tournament back in 1992.
The 24-year-old Zverev, who has yet to win a Grand Slam tournament in his career, claims this is his biggest achievement to date. He had won the 2018 World Tour Finals – where he also defeated Djokovic – and lost the final of the US Open in 2020 to Dominic Thiem.
“There is nothing better than this,” said Zverev. “I can’t compare it because this is so much bigger than anything else in sports, especially in tennis.”
“Yes, I’ve won the World Tour Finals, but I think, to be honest, a gold medal at the Olympics, for me, the value is incredible because you’re not only playing for yourself, you’re playing for your whole country.”
Novak Djokovic meltdown leaves him medal-less again
Novak Djokovic’s run in the Tokyo Olympics came to a stunning end when he lost in the semi-finals to Zverev. After winning the first set convincingly 6-1, Djokovic dropped the next two sets as he missed out yet again on that elusive Olympic gold medal.
But things would get even worse for the world No. 1 in the bronze medal match against Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta.
After losing a point, a frustrated Djokovic threw his racket into the empty stands. And later in the set, he destroyed his new racket by pounding it against one of the posts that hold up the net after losing another point.
Djokovic would go on to lose the match 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-3 as he fell in the semi-finals for the third time in the Olympics.
“I just didn’t deliver yesterday and today. The level of tennis dropped. Also due to exhaustion — mentally and physically,” Djokovic said. “I gave it [my] all, whatever I had left in the tank, which was not so much.”
Djokovic won the bronze in his first Olympics in 2008 but lost in the bronze medal match at London 2012 and was stunned in the first round at Rio 2016. The 34-year-old admits that return is not up to his standards, but he determined to try again in Paris in three years’ time.
“I know that I will bounce back. I will try to keep going for Paris Olympic Games and fight for my country to win medals,” Djokovic said.
ROC men’s tennis players win medals
The members of the Russian Olympic Committee represented themselves quite well in tennis as they delivered some impressive Olympics 2020 results.
While Khachanov was outclassed by Zverev in the semi-final, he still became the first Russian to medal in the Olympics men’s singles since Yevgeny Kafelnikov won gold in the 2000 Olympics.
The ROC’s more high-profile tennis player, No. 2 Daniil Medvedev, disappointingly crashed out of in the quarter-finals against Carreno Busta. Meanwhile, Andrey Rublev and Aslan Karatsev were both knocked out in the first and second round, respectively.
However, Rublev would redeem himself in the mixed doubles tournament, as he and partner Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova went on to win the gold medal.
Khachanov, Medvedev, and Rublev are all still fairly young and have their best tennis ahead of them, so there’s a good chance the Russians can medal once again in tennis in the next Olympics in Paris.
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