PARIS – There is one thing Serbian patriot Novak Djokovic has never clearly explained: why, on the day he could have won a medal for his country, he decided not to contest it and went home.
Djokovic is still winning, still smiling and still playing the violin for his daughter Tara, although everything is costing him more and more, he is pushing his physique to the limit. He did it once again on Thursday by beating Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-3, 7-6 (7-3) to advance to the semi-finals of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
If he wins his next match against Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti, he will be in contention for gold. If he loses, he will have a chance at bronze, the same chance he missed twice in Tokyo 2020: once by defeat, once by defection.
Paris is treating the Serb well, a stark contrast to the tension of three years ago in Japan, when Alexander Zverev first denied him gold and then Pablo Carreño Busta took bronze. Those gritted-teeth Games, obsessed with a ‘Golden Slam’ like Germany’s Steffi Graf in 1988, were the scene of one of the most inexplicable situations in the Serb’s career.
Champion in Australia, Roland Garros and Wimbledon, the Serb was already looking to become an ‘Über-tennis player’. Roger Federer had long since ceased to be a problem, and Rafael Nadal was on one of his repeated injury layoffs. Ambitious, it was not enough for him to win the US Open in September to win the Grand Slam, something tennis had not seen since 1969 with Rod Laver.
No, Djokovic wanted the Golden Slam, and for that he had to win Olympic gold in August, in pandemic Tokyo, a Games of empty stands and spectators confined to the television.
With consecutive defeats to Zverev and Carreño Busta, the Serb was left with nothing. Or not… Djokovic had it in his hand to win an Olympic medal, but he did not want to play the mixed doubles bronze medal match with his compatriot Nina Stojanovic.
‘Physically and mentally, Novak was destroyed. Physically he couldn’t take it anymore. Emotionally he died after the match with Zverev,‘ Serbian Olympic team captain Vicktor Troicki told CLAY this week.
Stojanovic, who was facing a once-in-a-lifetime chance to win an Olympic medal, found out minutes before the match that she was left without a partner, that she was forced to ‘walk over’, not to play. The possible bronze, by all indications, meant nothing to Djokovic, but it would have been one of the highlights of the then 25-year-old Stojanovic’s career.
‘Of course she was disappointed,’ Troicki admitted to CLAY. ‘Playing the mixed was a mistake that Novak learned from; now in Paris 2024 he is another player and looking to make history.’
Djokovic’s decision to go for it all – singles, doubles and mixed doubles – worked against him. Exhausted physically and mentally, his attitude at those Games was one of tension and anxiety, not exactly the easiest version of the Serb’s many. According to Troicki, it’s all different this time.
‘He is a different player here. He is very motivated and now you can feel the difference on the court. Two months ago, when he played the French Open, he wasn’t as hungry and motivated as he is now. That’s the difference.’
And the difference compared to Tokyo 2021?
‘It was very hot there and here he’s just focused on the individual title and he’s doing everything he can to get it. Here he has his family, his children are with him. So I think in Paris he feels better mentally and that’s the most important thing for him at the moment.’
In that pandemic summer, Stojanovic suffered doubly: even before she learned that her partner would take away her chance to fight for the Olympic medal, a legion of pro-Djokovic trolls began attacking her. They accused her of being responsible for the Serbian sporting superstar’s exhaustion and failure to win singles gold.
‘It was not a nice feeling to read those comments,’ Stojanovic recently told the Reketiranje Podcast.
But Troicki agrees that playing the mixed was a mistake: ‘He lost energy playing mixed doubles for no reason.’
Three years have passed, and Stojanovic still hasn’t received an explanation from Djokovic.
‘I haven’t spoken to him since then, I didn’t have the chance, I saw him two or three times. I think that conversation will happen one day, and I hope it will happen,’ she added to Serbian radio B92.
Compared to Nadal and Federer, his two historic rivals, Djokovic’s success at the Olympics is modest. He has only a singles bronze from Beijing 2008, where Federer won doubles gold with Stanislas Wawrinka. Nadal, who won singles gold at that Chinese event, took doubles gold at Rio 2016 alongside Marc López and failed to advance to the singles or doubles finals in Paris, his last Games.
There is one big culprit for Djokovic’s lack of success at the Games, and that is the now retired Juan Martin del Potro. The Argentine defeated him in the bronze medal match at London 2012 and knocked him out in the first round at Rio 2016. Five years later, Djokovic had it in his power to beat Australia’s Ashleigh Barty and John Peers, but chose not to play.
Playing for the three medals in Tokyo ‘is one of the many mistakes he learned from,’ says Troicki. ‘He’s like that. Sometimes he’s stubborn. Even if everybody tells him he shouldn’t play, if he thinks he should play, he will play. And he will try to prove everyone wrong.’
How did Stojanovic take it when her partner abandoned her on the doorstep of the medal?
‘Of course she was disappointed, but I didn’t see much of her. I was there with the boys, not the girls. I completely understand and this is part of the game sometimes. It’s tough.’
Did Djokovic explain his decision to her directly?
‘I’m not sure about the details. I think they talked, but I don’t know the details.’
