Alexander Zverev has ended Novak Djokovic’s dreams of winning the golden slam after a 1-6 6-3 6-1 victory in Tokyo.
Djokovic will now have to win gold in the mixed doubles if he wants to leave Tokyo with the ultimate prize. As for Zverev he will play Karen Khachanov for the gold medal in the singles.
“I feel sorry for Novak, but he’s won 20 grand slams, 550 masters series or whatever, you can’t have everything,” Zverev told the Olympic News service.
“He’s the greatest player of all time, he will win the most grand slams out of anybody on tour, but I’m also happy that I’m in the final.”
Djokovic got off to a better start and after the first three games of the match went on serve it was the Serb with the first breakpoint of the match as he got the first break of the match. Djokovic was relentless after that getting the double break after consolidating it and serving out the first set in dominating fashion.
The second set saw the world No.1 get the first break as he looked in command heading into a 3-2 lead. However Zverev provided the perfect response as he broke straight back and sealed four games in a row to force the match into a deciding set.
The Hamburg native carried the momentum into the third and had two breakpoints in the first game which resulted in a break to take an early 1-0 lead but faced some heavy pressure from the world number one the very next game.
The world number five saved three breakpoints before consolidating the break and went up a double break breaking the Serb again with a superb passing shot.
It was one-way traffic from there and the German managed to get one more break of serve to seal the match and the win and set up a gold medal match final with the Russian Karen Khachanov.
“It’s an amazing feeling knowing that you’re going to bring the medal back to your house, back home to Germany. It’s incredible beating the best player in the world undoubtedly right now and in this season,” said Zverev.
“It seemed it was impossible to beat him at this event, so I’m very happy right now. But yet there’s still one match to go.”
Zverev and Khachanov are tied 2-2 in their official head to head and both players will be bringing medals home on Saturday.
As for Djokovic he will play Pablo Carreno Busta in the bronze medal match in singles and still has a chance to win gold in the mixed doubles with Nina Stojanovic.
They face Elena Vesnina and Aslan Karatsev later on Friday in the semi-finals.
