Novak Djokovic won the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, leaving many of his colleagues in awe of his win.
Djokovic is highly respected among his colleagues on the ATP Tour, as many former and current players have spoken really highly of him. This simply stems from tennis players' unique ability to understand how it is to be a tennis player.
Someone like Holger Rune is a very good tennis player, and he sacrificed a lot in his life to get to that level. He knows well how much it takes to become really good at tennis, which allows him to appreciate how great a tennis player Djokovic truly is.
Some tennis fans may not appreciate the amount of sacrifice Djokovic made in his life to be where he is, but other players can and certainly have over the years.
After he finally 'completed tennis', as one of them said, the ATP gathered some initial thoughts from his fellow colleagues on the latest achievement by a player whom many consider the greatest of all time, with Rune being one of them.
"I think if there's one person that deserves it so much, it's Novak. He's completed tennis in a way. He's taking tennis to another level. He's just the greatest. I take massive inspiration from him and I think he's a very nice guy as well."
"Novak is 37 now and winning the gold medal, I think it shows a little bit on the level he is producing. I think it's completely incredible. Hopefully we'll still see him a few more years on the Tour so we can compete against him."
Stefanos Tsitsipas took a more spiritual route, as he often does when he reacts to it. He pointed out how Djokovic visualized getting the medal, which is true because he did.
It's powerful self-motivation for many, and Djokovic is no stranger to using alternative methods in the way he does things. It was a worthy reminder from Tsitsipas.
"He visualised getting a gold medal. I’m sure he's someone that has been putting a lot of effort into making that happen. It is probably one of the things that he was missing as World No. 1 and a multiple Grand Slam champion, the gold medal. It was something that was not part of his collection."
Another player who is uniquely qualified to talk about Djokovic's greatness is Gael Monfils. They have played 19 times so far, and Monfils has never won, so he knows how tough Djokovic can be on a tennis court, and that was reflected in his reaction as well.
"He completed so much before. Novak is a legend in our sport. He is just completely special. He is completely different, completely special and for him I think it's the biggest accomplishment possible so I'm just super happy for him."
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