One of the greatest Decathletes of all-time, Daley Thompson had once said, “Having the ambition of becoming Olympic champion is a whole different ambition from wanting to be the greatest.” We saw one of the humblest examples of this at Roland Garros this Sunday.

Having spent a major part of my career in sports broadcast, the best lesson I have learnt is ‘Let the pictures speak’. Those emotions, captured by the camera angles that speak for themselves, a true reflection of what the Olympics means and should mean for the next generation.

24 Grand Slam titles and endless usage of the word GOAT, Novak Djokovic has seen it all. What we, as fans, hadn’t seen until Sunday were those trembling fingers, uncontrollable tears and his race up to the Family Box through a short cut by jumping over the stands. This was pure emotion.

Djokovic has finally accomplished something he had waited for 16 long years. Maiden Olympic Gold Medal. Some said his emotions were because he exacted revenge for the Wimbledon loss to Alcaraz. Really? I’m sure we know Djokovic better.

Overcoming a mental block

7-6, 7-6 you would normally think is a two-hour affair. But, this was gruelling. No two ways about it. Nearly three hours with umpteen deuces and not a single service broken. When one game was going deuce after deuce, pretty sure the organizers were grateful the Olympics aren’t a best-of-five affair.

In the opening set, you could see the Wimbledon hangover. 2-1 up in the opening set and setting three break points with terrific forehands, Djokovic had clearly set the tone. But, to lose the game from there was just a case of mental block that he had started developing against Alcaraz. He would never even attempt retrieving the beautifully disguised Alcaraz drops. The Serb would throw question after question to the Spaniard and each time, Alcaraz would not only respond, but respond with a level of audaciousness that would even make the accused in the box ask the jury – Do you have any more questions?

And then, something just happened. Djokovic remembers that he had an A Game after all and that was just not coming out. He brings it out and the first outcomes – deep backhands. Those three points in the opening set tie-break where he forced the errors from Alcaraz proved to be the telling (not the turning) point of the Gold Medal match. It just re-ignited self-belief. The set-winning point was a statement. You cannot keep passing me, Alcaraz. I’ve got you covered. That was insane. And then came the pumping of the fist.

Olympic Gold kickstarts Djokovic 2.0

For me, that point, and the first set tie-break changed the complexion of the contest (and maybe the rivalry) in many ways. Even though Alcaraz had the advantage of serving first in the second set, he never really asked questions of Djokovic’s serve. The writing was on the wall increasingly for the Spaniard as the match progressed and the tie-break score of 7-2 just about symbolic of the dominance of Djokovic.

The World No. 2 has endured a lot of pain, physical and emotional over the years. As Federer and Nadal dominated the popularity index, Djokovic had to consistently play the second fiddle, although he was always up there with the results.

Not the crowd favourite. Never really was. More so after what happened post the Australian Open visa saga. You’ve always seen him battle the odds, but this seemingly was the biggest of them all. Ironically, most of us knew how special an Olympic Gold Medal is for the Serb only after he actually won it. None of his pre-Olympic statements carried even an iota of emotion that we saw the moment he won the Gold.

We always under-read the minds of legends. Their priorities are not about being labelled GOATs, which they anyway are. Djokovic just showed us what the Olympic Gold means to him. And what his reaction means to all of us is we are ready to see Djokovic 2.0 over the next couple of years (read four years). Oh yes, he has already talked about Los Angeles Olympics. Good times need not always come to an end. They can continue…