Novak Djokovic may yet complete the grand slam, but it will not have a golden hue. Just when the world No 1’s progress to a first Olympic men’s singles crown had assumed an air of inevitability, along came Alexander Zverev to offer a gloriously unexpected reminder that, however formidable the odds or the opposition, nothing is preordained in this sport.
With Djokovic aiming to become only the second player in history to win all four majors and Olympic gold in the same year, memories of Steffi Graf, who achieved the feat in 1988, have loomed large in Tokyo. Djokovic, who arrived in the Japanese capital as holder of the Australian, French and Wimbledon titles, has matched the great German step for step this season. But it will now be Zverev who attempts to emulate Graf in Sunday’s final, where he will face Karen Khanchanov, the 25th-ranked Russian, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta in the other semi-final.
“It’s an amazing feeling, knowing that you’re going to bring the medal back to your house, back home to Germany,” said Zverev following his 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 victory. “It’s incredible beating the best player in the world undoubtedly right now, and in this season. It seemed it was impossible to beat him at this event, so I’m very happy right now. But there’s still one match to go.”
With an hour gone and Djokovic a set and a break to the good, it seemed likely that Zverev’s next match would be the bronze medal playoff. The Serb had been imperious, his desire to win his first Olympic semi-final in three attempts palpable in every sinew stretched, every lost cause chased. It was a performance thoroughly in keeping with the previous rounds, in which Djokovic had looked virtually untouchable, dropping his service just once.
Zverev battled gamely but, having seen a break point come and go in the opening game, he conceded his own delivery twice in quick succession as the Serb took a major stride towards his first Olympic final.
The second set began in a more promising vein for Zverev. Sensing the need to seize the initiative, the German abandoned his fruitless policy of rallying passively from the back of the court and began stepping inside the baseline, finding greater depth and penetration as he probed for a chink in the Djokovic armour. The shift did not go unnoticed by the Serb, who emitted his first triumphal roar of the day as a Zverev backhand sailed long in the fourth game.
With the match belatedly underway as a contest, the German looked to have shot himself in the foot when some loose groundstrokes and a pair of botched drop volleys handed Djokovic a break in the next game. Zverev knew it, too, furiously swiping a ball high into the stands. But he stuck to his guns, rifling a backhand winner before finding the baseline with a forehand of unanswerable power and penetration to move 0-30 up against the Djokovic serve.
The Serb has successfully risen to countless such mini-crises across the course of this extraordinary season. For once, though, he faltered, dropping his serve to love after two unsuccessful attempts to serve and volley his way out of trouble. By the time he next stepped up to the line, he had lost two love games. Now Zverev had the bit between his teeth, returning superbly to put Djokovic on his heels and moving confidently into the forecourt to finish the points. A scorching backhand pass, the German’s ninth successive point, laid the foundations for a second break. With Zverev serving at 5-3, Djokovic saved a set point with a backhand winner of breath-taking timing and precision, but the German was not to be denied, a timely ace and a booming forehand sealing the set.
“I was playing his game, I was rallying with him a lot, so I needed to change it up, I needed to swing through the ball a little bit more,” said Zverev. “I started playing much more aggressive, and I tried to dominate that way.”
With the match level and the extreme weather policy once again in place despite the early evening start, Djokovic trudged off to the locker room for a wardrobe change. Interestingly, Zverev opted to remain on court. Only he will know how far that contributed to his dominant display down the home straight but, untroubled by the need to re-acclimatise to the humid conditions, the German immediately picked up from where he had left off.
Zverev fashioned an instant break, extending his run of games to five, and when he fended off break points to consolidate the advantage, Djokovic was staring down the barrel. He has weathered plenty of storms in recent months, recovering from two sets to love down against Lorenzo Musetti and Stefanos Tsitsipas at the French Open, and bouncing back from a set down to beat Matteo Berrettini in the Wimbledon final. Yet those matches were played over five sets, allowing Djokovic time to plot a course to victory. He was always likely to be more vulnerable in a best-of-three contest, and this time there was to be no escapology.
“Tough day, a really tough day,” said Djokovic, who later suffered a second defeat alongside Nina Stojanovic in the semi-finals of the mixed doubles. “I feel so terrible right now. My game fell apart. I was leading a set then a break and he managed to turn the match around, he served huge, was attacking, and I was not getting any free points on my first serves and I missed a lot of first serves from 3-2 in the second. To play someone of his quality, of his level, it’s just too tough to win a match.”
Having fired a final backhand winner to seal the match, Zverev consoled Djokovic during a lingering embrace at the net. “I told him that he’s the greatest of all time, and he will be,” said Zverev. “I know that he was chasing history, chasing the golden slam and was chasing the Olympics, but in these kind of moments me and Novak are very close. Of course I’m happy that I’ve won, but at the end of the day I know how Novak feels.”
How Zverev felt soon became evident, the German crouching on his haunches as he was briefly overwhelmed by the enormity of the moment. He knows he will need to regroup quickly. Khachanov, who attributes his impressive run to the final to an improved mental outlook, was in ominously good form against Carreno Busta. Yet he has risen to such a challenge before, winning the ATP Tour finals in London three years ago, and may be helped by the knowledge that he is representing a greater cause.
“You’re not only playing for yourself,” reflected Zverev. “You are playing for the whole country, for the people here, for everybody watching and supporting you.”