Tokyo Olympics- Tennis: World No.1 Novak Djokovic inconsolable after semifinals loss, says, ‘I feel so terrible, can’t be positive’- It was very bad at the office for Tennis superstar Novak Djokovic. The Serbian lost two semifinals on the same day at Tokyo Games. As a result, his dream of winning the Golden Slam after a dominating run at Grand Slams in 2021 is finished. The World No,1 will now have to wait for 3 more years. He lost the day opening match in men’s singles to Alexander Zverev before losing the second semifinals in mixed doubles semifinals with Nina Stojanovic to Russia’s Elena Vesnina and Aslan Karatsev. The Serbian pair fell to a 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 loss to Russians. In the other match, Germany’s Alexander Zverev defeated Djokovic 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the men’s singles event.
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Tokyo Olympics- Tennis: World No.1 Novak Djokovic inconsolable after semifinals loss, says, ‘I feel so terrible, can’t be positive’
As a result of this loss, Djokovic would not be able to achieve the Golden Slam (all four Grand Slams and Olympic gold) in the same year.
The defeat comes even as Djokovic had won the Australian Open, French Open, and Wimbledon this year and now he would look to win the US Open, beginning August this year.
Djokovic, who won singles bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games, admitted he was finding it hard to find consolation in possibly repeating the feat or completing a calendar-year Grand Slam by winning the U.S. Open in September.
“I feel so terrible right now, can’t be positive right now,” said Djokovic, who will play Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta in Saturday’s bronze medal match.
“I don’t know I feel terrible… in every sense, but tomorrow hopefully, a fresh start. I can recover and at least win one medal for my country,” he added.
“It’s just sport, you know, he played better. I got to give him credit for turning the match around,” Djokovic said of Zverev, adding, “He served extremely well, I was not getting too many looks on the second serve. My serve just drastically dropped, I didn’t get any free points from 3-2 up in the second.”
“Yeah, my game fell apart, his game – he won, I think seven or eight games in a row and yeah, that was it.”
Tokyo Olympics- Tennis: World No.1 Novak Djokovic inconsolable after semifinals loss, says, ‘I feel so terrible, can’t be positive’
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(with Reuters inputs)
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