Novak Djokovic has a record 24 Grand Slam singles wins to choose from when picking out his career highlight, but the tennis great insists none come close to his Olympic Gold medal win in Paris.
The former world number one claimed his first Olympic medal back in 2008, winning bronze in Beijing, but had to wait another 16 years for gold. He lost to Andy Murray in the semis in London in 2012, and at the same stage against Alexander Zverev in Tokyo, with an early exit against Juan Martin del Potro in Rio in between.
That left him needing to do things the hard way. Carlos Alcaraz stood in the way in Paris last summer, and Djokovic – now 37 – needed two tie-breaks to get over the line.
Speaking at the ASICS Tennis Summit in Melbourne, Djokovic reflected on that success. He’s far from done when it comes to top tournaments, despite injuries in recent years interrupting his climb back up the rankings, but Olympic gold will live long in the memory.
“Probably the highlight of my career, what i experienced in Paris last year,” Djokovic explains. “I’ve been lucky enough to achieve great things in this sport, but winning a gold medal for Serbia at the age of 37, it was probably the last best chance that I had to go for the gold.
“Under the circumstances also of having a surgery not long before then, then coming back and playing the finals at Wimbledon and really getting the highest possible motivation and inspiration for myself to represent my country and really have a shot at gold. It happened in almost a movie-like scenario for me, having my wife and my kids with me, and just incredible support, atmosphere, a lot of the Serbian olympic team athletes were out there present as well for the match.
“So the celebration was unlike any celebration for my achievements before, it lasted for days, maybe weeks, to be honest. I spent some time in the Olympic village, I came to the ASICS headquarters in Paris at that time, and also went back to my country and just had the Olympic gold medal tour after that, the States and China.
“It was definitely the proudest moment i’ve ever had. Winning for your country is unlike anything else. We are individual athletes who of course represent our countries whenever we’re competing at individual tournaments, but the Plympic games are unlike any other sports events. It’s such an important… the most important historic sport event, happens every four years so the opportunity is very rare, so it was just a wonderful, almost fairytale like scenario for me.”
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Djokovic was speaking at the launch of ASICS’ new Gel Resoluton X shoe, and outlined the challenges he has faced in the emotional side of the game – in the context of the brand’s ‘Sound Mind, Sound Body’ motto. He suggested he has never experienced stronger on-court emotions than at the Paris Olympics, but recognises he hasn’t always been able to keep his emotions in check on the biggest stage.
“I think about myself, and how stressed and nervous I get on the court at times and how i express that sometimes in a negative way,” he admits. “I don’t think it’s wrong if you experience those emotions – i think it’s part of you, part of the condition, because you care about that.
“Obviously each individual is different, and i think what is important is how you bounce back, how you always bring yourself back to that optimal state where you are present and focused on the next point, the next move, the next moment. So I think this is where the secret lies, when it comes your mental strength and your capacity and ability to really deal with pressure moments and get the most out of your ability mentally on the court as well.”
Rene Zandbergen is the ASICS shoe guru who has worked directly with Djokovic over the last few years, and he tells Mirror Sport about the long process required to perfect each new release, and there’s clearly a mutual respect. “Even though i feel like i’ve reached the perfect shoe for my foot, i’m happy always to exchange ideas and thoughts on what we can do better, how i can acatully move better on certain surfaces, because tennis is a very demanding sport in terms of changes of surface,” Djokovic notes.
Zandbergen estimates that, from start to finish, the process takes between one-and-a-half and two years. This involves conversations with top pros but also with recreational players, who will require different things from the shoe.
“During the season we often also have video calls, and I’ve learned through covid that if you schedule half an hour with players, they tend to jump on it more often than when i ask for 45 minutes… but then maybe that lasts for 45 minutes anyway,” he says, We meet, and then because it’s difficult to meet for a couple of days, sometimes what i did with Novak i actually went there for two days in Serbia a couple of years ago already.
“The first day I was talking about the prototype, the second day we started testing. So it’s basically doing his normal day, his normal procedure and while he was doing that he was testing the shoe and giving feedback.”
“On top of [the work with pros] we also work with normal players, recreational players, to hear from them – because they tend to give other feedback, because if you need to buy a shoe, durability will become very important. If you are a professional player you get the shoe so you don’t care as much about durability, it’s just a fact.”
Djokovic’s comments about the mental game come against the backdrop of his Paris win, which came with his wife and children watching, and with all those previous close calls playing through his mind once he was finally able to banish the ghosts of years past. “I would say the emotions start to run right after that last shot, right after i turned around to the box and saw my wife and kids and the team,” he explains.
“My brother was there as well. And then it just kept going, kept going, i was kneeling down on the court and experiencing everything and i was having flashes of all the Olympic Games up til that moment where i had some heartbreaking… probably the most heartbreaking losses for me.
“And so all the accumulation of all these emotions was happening on the court in that very instant. So i think that was probably the strongest set of emotions I have experienced in tennis”
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