Djokovic collapse ends Golden Slam bid
NOVAK DJOKOVIC felt ‘terrible’ after his bid for a historic Golden Slam ended in an extraordinary slump at the hands of Alexander Zverev. The world No1 was cruising towards the men’s singles final, a set and a break up, with his opponent having just smashed a ball over the roof of the court in frustration. Then Djokovic fell apart. He lost ten games out of 11 — including four service games in which he won a total of five points — in a 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 loss. ‘You’ve got to give him credit for turning the match around,’ said Djokovic, who lost a mixed doubles semi immediately afterwards. ‘He served extremely well. My serve just drastically dropped. My game fell apart.’
By the time Zverev closed out the fourth of the consecutive service breaks to win the match, Djokovic was resigned to defeat. It ended his dream of becoming first man to win all four majors and an Olympic singles gold medal in the same calendar year. He won the first set at a cruise and Zverev, the world No 5, had thumped his racket in frustration before a break sent him 3-1 down in the second set. In desperation, the German began chancing big serves and bold passing shots, which came off. Djokovic’s game collapsed, with 14 unforced errors in a second set when he struggled to land his first serve. Zverev said: ‘He was chasing history and the Golden Slam and you can’t win everything. I told him at the end: “You are the greatest of all-time”. I’m sorry I won today but it was nice to win for once against him.’ Djokovic was back on court within an hour to play a mixed doubles semi with Nina Stojanovic. The Serbs lost 7-6, 7-5 to Russians Elena Vesnina and Aslan Karatsev, leaving the No1 seed facing two bronze medal matches. ‘I feel terrible right now,’ he said. ‘Hopefully I can recover and win at least one medal for my country.’ Zverev plays Russian Karen Khachanov in tomorrow’s men’s singles final after the world No25 beat Spain’s Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-3.