PARIS – Spain was too much, too much for Carlos Alcaraz. The pressure he felt today in the final for Paris 2024 Olympic gold was “different”, he said. And hence the flood of tears, the emotional outpouring after the final in an interview with former Spanish tennis player Alex Corretja on Eurosport whose images went around the world.
“I was playing for Spain, for all Spaniards, everyone was watching the match, for me to win the gold medal,” he said after the 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-2) defeat to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic at the Roland Garros venue.
“In front of me there has been a player who has done better than me in the moments where he had to do it. In the difficult moments, comparing it to other tournaments, like for example with the Grand Slam, today I didn’t give the best of me, today I didn’t increase that level in the difficult moments, in the tense moments and he did, so it was probably a different pressure.”
Those were the tears of a 21-year-old who had won so much, so much, and dreamed of winning more. And then, on the podium, there was a smile at last. And later, at the press conference, he admitted that winning silver in his first Games is a great achievement.
But before, long before, there were gestures of annoyance, glances at the racquet strings, suspicious glances at the surface, changes of racquet, arms up in the air, home runs: and when all this happens, it is not the strings, the surface or the chair umpire that is not right, but the tennis player.
This is part of what happened this Sunday to Alcaraz in that rectangle of broken nerves that at key moments was again for him the Philippe Chatrier centre court. The place where less than two months ago he won Roland Garros for the first time, yes, but also the stage where 14 months ago, in the semi-finals of the French Open against Novak Djokovic, he suffered a psychological debacle that ended up affecting his physique in the form of cramps.
This time it was not a debacle at all, but an electrifying battle of two hours and 50 minutes against the most successful tennis player of all time. But it is true that Alcaraz’s dream of Olympic gold was affected by an obvious pressure that, especially in the beginning, prevented him from being his best version, beyond all the merits of a player from another galaxy like the Serb. And beyond the spectacular points and the remarkable intensity of the battle offered by the Spaniard.
Djokovic, owner of tons of experience and unparalleled cunning, smelled those nerves at the start of the match, got on them and never got off. He was the man who had his last chance to win an Olympic gold against the young man who will have a few more. That also played a part.
In the seconds before entering the court, Alcaraz and Djokovic were left alone in a small room. The Spaniard began to jump and simulate backhand shots, he needed to get rid of his nerves, to loosen up. He managed to do so only intermittently.
At 14.11, Djokovic missed his first serve and took an eternity for the second. Expectant silence, a crying baby, the Serb serving and Alcaraz throwing the ball out after a short forehand exchange from the back of the court.
Another missed forehand from Alcaraz, this time crashing into the net, and 40-0 as a pattern of something that had already happened in the same place a year ago: nerves of Alcaraz in a decisive match against Djokovic.
As the set progressed, another thing that happens with some frequency to the Spaniard was noticed: break balls that he cannot take advantage of. He could have taken a 5-4 lead and his serve, but he missed. There were eight break points in total and none converted throughout the set.
And while it is true that he recovered with a furious crosscourt forehand from a set point and managed to reach the tie break after 84 minutes of a battle much more bitter and intense than lucid, it was the nerves that prevailed over his game.
The thermometer? The lack of control of his forehand in several passages, above all, but also the backhand that he threw out to make it 3-5 in the tie break. Then, a forehand missed by several metres. After a while, the Serb masterfully volleys a cross-court forehand from the Spaniard to make it 7-6 (7-3) after 93 minutes.
More than an hour and a half for a single set! And it would be two hours and 40 minutes to reach the tie break of the second set.
A first set in which there were signs of problems in a thigh and the pickle juice, which Alcaraz uses to anticipate cramps, came into action.
This happens with some frequency to Alcaraz and can be seen in two ways. One, that with nerves and cramps he is the best and most successful 21-year-old tennis player the professional tennis era has ever known. The other, that if he could find a solution to an obvious problem, he could go even further, but above all he could enjoy himself more.
With all the differences between a 37-year-old Serb and a 21-year-old Spaniard, Alcaraz is much more like Djokovic than Rafael Nadal. Like Djokovic, he whips up the crowd, calls for support and celebrates himself after a spectacular point; like Djokovic, he doesn’t hesitate to say he wants to own it all. The “I’m an ambitious guy” is unthinkable in Nadal’s mouth, but a phrase that fits Djokovic like a glove.
It is essential to take it into account: the Alcaraz of nerves is the same one who won two consecutive Wimbledon finals against Djokovic, something that no one in tennis can say, neither Nadal nor Roger Federer. But in the game of egos, histrionics and chest-thumping, Djokovic has the advantage, because he has been doing it since before Alcaraz was born.
It was seen in the Serb’s two fabulous short cross-court forehands in the tie break, shots that come from the depths of his champion’s soul, as happened against Roger Federer in the semi-finals of the US Open 2011 or the final of Wimbledon 2019, when he was match point down. Faced with that, there was little to do: no Alcaraz, no one.
Now, Roland Garros champion, Wimbledon champion and Olympic silver medallist in just 56 days? 99.99 per cent of the men and women who have dedicated themselves since 1988, when tennis became Olympic again, to making a living with a racket, would sign those achievements for a lifetime. Well, Alcaraz did it in two months.
“In the end, we also had a Novak Djokovic in front of us who also wanted to win that gold medal more than I did,” Alcaraz concluded his emotional strip-tease before insisting on what made him cry on centre court: “I felt I let all the Spaniards down.”
