According to former WTA player Lindsay Davenport, Novak Djokovic preferred winning the Olympic gold over any Grand Slams in 2024.
As arguably the greatest tennis player of all time, the Serbian legend likely has very high expectations of himself. He wants to win every event he plays, and while at this stage of his career, some events have priority over others, he doesn’t go out there to lose matches.
That goes against everything he stands for as a player, and it's obvious in his approach. His performance at the US Open in New York was not his best for multiple matches, which is very atypical for Djokovic. An answer to the question 'why' likely lies in what happened a few weeks before.
Djokovic was in Paris for the Olympics, chasing a lifelong dream of becoming an Olympic champion. It was the only major title he had not won until that point in his career, and it was a huge goal for him.
The Serbian was quite focused earlier in the year, with this being his main goal ahead of the 2024 season. Of course, it wasn’t his only goal for the season, which still featured four other significant events that he would have loved to win.
However, winning the gold medal became almost like an obsession for him because this was it—the next Olympics would only be in four years, and if he didn’t win it now, he would likely never get another chance.
He certainly played that way, delivering the best performance we’ve seen from him in a long time. While he had made an effort earlier this year and at many other events, the Olympic Games in Paris were different.
He faced reigning Roland Garros champion Carlos Alcaraz, who had beaten him easily a few weeks before in the Wimbledon final, and the Serbian beat him. He beat him fair and square, fulfilling a long-time dream of becoming Olympic champion.
To former player Lindsay Davenport, who shared her thoughts with Sport Klub., this was a clear indication that Djokovic prioritized this event above everything else. He preferred to win the Olympic gold over the Grand Slams, and that’s exactly what he did.
"Big, but that’s normal. I was delighted when he won the gold medal in Paris. If you had asked him if he wanted Olympic gold or all four Grand Slam tournaments, I am convinced he would have said gold. It is without a doubt the best moment in the world of tennis this year."
"He wanted it more than anyone else, more than anything in the world. And he did all this after surgery and losing the final at Wimbledon. It just shows his greatness."
While he returned to the majors this season in New York, and it's possible that a fully motivated Djokovic, like he was in Paris, can still achieve a lot, the question remains whether he can bring that intensity to every event he plays.
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