“Novak Djokovic is the golden guy and was being harassed”: Olympic gold medalist, Julien Mertine
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Novak Djokovic triumphed over the Italian, Matteo Berrettini in the Wimbledon Championships 2021 in a thrilling 4 set match. This win gave the Serbian his 6th Wimbledon win and his 20th Grand Slam title. The Big 3, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are now equaled for the most Grand Slam titles.
Djokovic came to Tokyo hoping to win the gold medal for himself and his country, Serbia. He has never won an Olympic gold before and it is the only title left to achieve in his tennis career. He was also eager to become the Olympic Champion to get one step closer to achieving the Calendar Golden Grand Slam.
The World number 1, won the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon this year. He was on track and in very good form to achieve a Calendar Golden Slam if he prevailed at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and U.S. Open.
However, all his dreams were squashed in the semi-finals against Germany’s Alexander Zverev. Even though Djokovic was looking in incredible form in the first set by taking the win, 6-1, Zverev came back stronger than ever and took the next two sets, 6-3, 6-1 to secure himself a medal and eventually, the German won the gold in the finals.
The Serbian failed to win in the bronze medal match as well and thus, headed back home without a medal. Djokovic faced number 6 seed, Pablo Carreno Busta from Spain in the bronze medal match. After an almost 3-hour marathon, Busta was the one to take the bronze medal after winning in three sets, 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3.
Djokovic admitted that he suffered a lot physically and mentally during the Olympic Games however, he did not regret participating at Tokyo. He said it was a wonderful opportunity for him to interact with athletes from other disciplines. One athlete who he met was Olympic foil fencer Champion, Julien Mertine.
“I took the liberty to go up to him to ask for a photo”: Julien Mertine
“There was Novak Djokovic at the cafeteria, he was being harassed, he’s a golden guy, he played the game and everything We were there at the table: ‘we’re not going to bother him’ And then an hour or two later, we walk around the village and then I passed him. He was all alone and I took the liberty of going up to him to ask for a photo,” said the Olympic Champion.
Djokovic also met up with the Belgium gymnastics team as he was seen cross-training with them by doing splits. Belgian gymnast, Nina Derwael posted a picture on her Instagram of Djokovic doing splits with her and he is executing the splits to perfection. She captioned the picture, “When @djokernole asks for a picture, you can’t refuse…;)”.
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Ananya Agarwal
(107 Articles Published)