The Elusive Golden Slam

Still on the Olympics, I had my eye on the tennis event because Novak Djokovic was on the verge of even more greatness. After winning the first three majors of the year, he had a really good chance of matching Steffi Graf's legendary achievement in 1988, when she became the first person to win all four Grand Slam events and the Olympic Gold medal - the Golden Slam.

photo from https://olympics.com/en/featured-news/tennis-golden-slam-steffi-graf-1988-olympics-gold

As it turned out, Steffi is still the only player to achieve the Golden Slam because Novak Djokovic was beaten in the semifinals. His conqueror? German World #5 Alexander Zverev. While Zverev is a strong player, he had lost the previous five matches he played against Djokovic. Furthermore, in the semifinal, he was down a set. I didn't get to see the match so I wasn't really able to see what was happening but I was surprised when I saw the final result: Zverev turned the match around and beat Novak. It seems that loss took a toll on Djokovic's psyche as he lost the bronze medal match to Pablo Carreno Busta as well. 

The Golden Slam is so elusive that even achieving a career Golden Slam - winning all four majors and an Olympic gold during your entire career but not necessarily in the same year - is extremely rare. Only three other players aside from Graf have achieved the career Golden Slam this so far: Andre Agassi, Serena Williams, and Rafael Nadal. 

While Novak Djokovic lost his chance to match Steffi's golden achievement in 1988, he still has a more-than-fair chance to win the Grand Slam - meaning all four majors in the same year. If he does that, he will be the first male player to achieve this in the Open Era. He will also join a very exclusive club of athletes who have achieved the Grand Slam that includes Don Budge, Maureen Connolly, Don Budge, Margaret Court, and Steffi. I still don't see anyone being able to beat Djokovic in a five-set match at the moment. That said, his loss at the Olympics shows that even the best are vulnerable to pressure. The US Open starts at the end of the month and it will be really interesting to see what happens.