Olympic tennis hits different.
The charming little week that regrips tennis once every four years showered the sport with selfless joy, a pleasant boost it probably didn’t know it needed.
Tennis forces players to crisscross the world in a cocoon of selfishness while pursuing individual achievements. That’s just the nature of this intensely solo sport.
The quadrennial Olympic gathering gives them a respite from … well, themselves.
They’re surrounded by hundreds of other remarkable athletes in the peak season of their athletic careers. Most have no name recognition, but they all share the same lifetime of dogged training, sacrifice, dedication, and drive to be their absolute best.
As Olympians, tennis players are folded into a community of people who want everyone to succeed. You have to look hard across the entirety of the Olympic landscape to find any athletes sniping or taking pot shots at each other. And while everyone wants to win, that winning desire stems mainly from the thrill of competition, the journey, the participation and the camaraderie.
Tennis players get to play for something other than themselves for once. They get to play for their countries, which translates to playing for your childhood, your family, your culture—the little patch of earth you call home.
Tennis players who opt out of the Olympics might preserve some ranking points and pocket some more money, but they miss out on an experience that the tour can’t replicate.
No one who participates in an Olympic Games skips out on subsequent opportunities. That tells you all you need to know.
The Medalists
Men’s Singles
Gold: Novak Djokovic (Serbia)
Silver: Carlos Alcaraz (Spain)
Bronze: Lorenzo Musetti (Italy)
Women’s Singles
Gold: Zheng Qinwen (China)
Silver: Donna Vekic (Croatia)
Bronze: Iga Swiatek (Poland)
Men’s Doubles
Gold: Matthew Ebden / John Peers (Australia)
Silver: Austin Krajicek / Rajeev Ram (USA)
Bronze: Taylor Fritz / Tommy Paul (USA)
Women’s Doubles
Gold: Sara Errani / Jasmine Paolini (Italy)
Silver: Mirra Andreeva / Diana Shnaider (Individual Neutral Athletes)
Bronze: Cristina Bucsa / Sara Sorribes Tormo (Spain)
Mixed Doubles
Gold: Katerina Siniakova / Tomas Machac (Czech Republic)
Silver: Wang Xinyu / Zhang Zhizhen (China)
Bronze: Gabriela Dabrowski / Felix Auger-Aliassime (Canada)
Novak Djokovic Completes Tennis
His hand was shaking while he was collapsed on all fours on the Parisian clay.
Novak Djokovic had just collected the final puzzle piece to his otherworldly career, and he could not control his emotions or his body. He wobbled sideways when he stood up, face run amok with ugly tears.
Djokovic has won every tournament the sport has to offer, many times over, but the Olympic gold medal has eluded him until now. It took five tries spanning sixteen years, and at age 37 he finally got it done.
He is now the fifth player in history to win the Career Golden Slam (all four majors plus Olympic gold), joining Rafael Nadal, Andre Agassi, Serena Williams and Steffi Graf.
He defeated Carlos Alcaraz in a tight-as-nails 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2) gold medal affair in which neither man broke serve. Djokovic won the match by absorbing highlight reel shots careening across the net from him all day. It was bend-but-don’t-break tennis, Novak’s bread and butter stuff.
In the end, two forehands won him the match, one in each tiebreak: a ripping forehand return crosscourt that clipped the line and wrested momentum of the first breaker, and a cracker of a crosscourt forehand to end a blockbuster rally in the second breaker.
We’ve seen him win similar matches time and again throughout his career. He can defy losing on the biggest stages in ways that border on prophetic.
“I thought that 2012, Opening Ceremony in London, carrying the flag for my country … is the best feeling that an athlete could have. Until today,” Djokovic said.
“This kind of supersedes everything that I imagined, that (I) hoped that I could experience and that I could feel.
“When I take everything in consideration, this probably is the biggest sporting success I’ve ever had in my career.”
Give it up for Qinwen
Zheng Qinwen took home the women’s gold medal by defeating Donna Vekic 6-2, 6-3 in the gold medal match.
One round earlier, she shocked the world by beating the unbeatable Iga Swiatek on the Roland Garros clay. Swiatek was 35-2 here entering the match with Zheng, including three straight Roland Garros titles.
Zheng had also lost all six encounters with Swiatek before this.
But she got it done in straight sets, including a comeback from 0-4 down in the second set.
She became the first Chinese tennis player to take home a gold medal in singles. This gold medal will propel her further into hero territory in her home country.
Murray’s Thrilling Finish
Andy Murray is now in retirement, but only after giving the tennis world two more thrilling moments.
He and doubles partner Dan Evans escaped the jaws of defeat in back-to-back matches.
In round one, they survived five consecutive match points against Japan’s Kei Nishikori and Taro Daniel. Trailing 9-5 in the third set super-breaker, they reeled off an improbable six consecutive points to win the match 2-6, 7-6 (5), 11-9.
In the very next round, they pulled off a nearly identical feat against Belgians Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen, this time trailing 7-9 in the deciding tiebreaker and winning four straight points to claim a 6-3, 6-7 (8), 11-9 victory.
They ran out of magic in the third round, and Murray received a nice on-court farewell as he walked off the court for a final time as a professional, but those final two matches and seven match points saved will be remembered and retold for a long time.
The scenes of unbridled joy after each comeback were something to behold.
Runs of Good Form
Tennis fortunes come in bunches. Winning breeds confidence which breeds more winning, and hot streaks in tennis can pop up out of nowhere. We’re seeing some great examples of it right now.
Jasmine Paolini won a gold medal for Italy with partner Sara Errani on the heels of solo runner-up finishes in Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
Donna Vekic took home the silver medal after reaching the semifinals of Wimbledon … after nearly retiring only a few months ago.
On the men’s side, Italian Lorenzo Musetti claimed the bronze medal after reaching the semis of Wimbledon, the finals of Croatia and the finals of Queens Club. Poor guy ran into Djokovic in Roland Garros, Wimbledon, and the Olympics or he might have had an even better run.
Wow have their lives changed this year.
