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Posted: Jul 30, 2021/ 06:42 AM CDT
/ Upgraded: Jul 30, 2021/ 06:42 AM CDT
TOKYO (AP)– There will certainly be no Golden Slam for Novak Djokovic.
The top-ranked Serb shed to Alexander Zverev of Germany 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 Friday in the semifinals of the tennis tournament at the Tokyo Olympics.
Djokovic was trying to become the very first man to win all four Conquest events and also Olympic gold in the same year. He won the Australian Open, the French Open and also Wimbledon this year and also needed the Olympic and UNITED STATE Open titles to complete the collection.
Steffi Graf in 1988 continues to be the only tennis player to attain the Golden Slam.
“He won 20 Grand Slams,” Zverev said. “So you can not have every little thing.”
Zverev’s opponent in the gold-medal match will be Karen Khachanov. The Russian beat Pablo Carreno Busta of Spain 6-3, 6-3.
Djokovic, that hadn’t lost given that getting beaten by Rafael Nadal at the Italian Open last 2 1/2 months ago, will certainly play Carreno Busta for bronze.
On a damp as well as muggy night at the Ariake Tennis Park, Djokovic dedicated a collection of uncharacteristic mistakes after a solid begin as the 6-foot-6 (1.98-meter) Zverev started to win cost-free factors with his big offer.
When Zverev hit a backhand victor down the line that Djokovic didn’t move for to close it out, Djokovic strolled to the web where he was embraced by Zverev. Djokovic reacted by relaxing his directly Zverev’s shoulder as the pair traded some words.
“I informed him that he’s the best of perpetuity,” Zverev said. “I recognize that he was going after background, he was chasing after (the) Golden Slam. … We’re extremely close. … So certainly I enjoy that I’ve won, yet in the end of the day I likewise understand (just how) he feels.”
Djokovic’s only Olympic medal was bronze in songs at the 2008 Beijing Gamings– his very first. He might still win a gold at the Tokyo Games in combined doubles.
Djokovic scheduled back on the court practically promptly to play with Serbian companion Nina Stojanovic in the combined doubles semifinals versus the Russian duo of Elena Vesnina as well as Aslan Karatsev.
It’s the 3rd consecutive day that Djokovic was playing two matches.
Viktor Troicki, Serbia’s Olympic group coach, on Thursday that the entire team protested Djokovic playing combined increases because they didn’t desire the occasion to tire him out with so much on the line in songs.
Without Djokovic, the gold-medal suit in singles will be lacking star power. Zverev’s best job result was getting to the last of last year’s UNITED STATE Open, while the 25th-ranked Khachanov is coming off a quarterfinal look at Wimbledon and also is currently in the biggest final of his profession.
Zverev called it “perhaps the proudest minute of my job so far.
“Because I’m not just playing for myself I’m not only playing for my moms and dads, for my sibling, for my household,” he included. “Yet I’m likewise betting everybody, all the (German) professional athletes here back at the base and also everyone back in the house seeing.”
Later, there’s an all-Croatian gold-medal suit in guys’s increases featuring the top-seeded pair of Nikola Mektic and also Companion Pavic versus Marin Cilic as well as Ivan Dodig.
The very first medal of the tennis competition went to the New Zealand group of Marcus Daniell and also Michael Venus, that took bronze in males’s doubles by defeating Austin Krajicek as well as Tennys Sandgren of the United States 7-6 (3 ), 6-2.
Daniell as well as Venus became the very first New Zealand players to win a medal in tennis since 1912, when Anthony Wilding took bronze in songs while standing for Australasia. Wilding, New Zealand’s only Conquest songs champion with 6 titles, was eliminated throughout World war in 1915 at the age of 31.