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Djokovic, Alcaraz Will Play for Men's Singles Gold at Olympics

Serbia's Novak Djokovic celebrates beating Italy's Lorenzo Musetti during their men's singles semi-final tennis match on Court Philippe-Chatrier at the Roland-Garros Stadium during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris on August 2, 2024. (Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP)
Serbia's Novak Djokovic celebrates beating Italy's Lorenzo Musetti during their men's singles semi-final tennis match on Court Philippe-Chatrier at the Roland-Garros Stadium during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris on August 2, 2024. (Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP)
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Djokovic, Alcaraz Will Play for Men's Singles Gold at Olympics

Serbia's Novak Djokovic celebrates beating Italy's Lorenzo Musetti during their men's singles semi-final tennis match on Court Philippe-Chatrier at the Roland-Garros Stadium during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris on August 2, 2024. (Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP)
Serbia's Novak Djokovic celebrates beating Italy's Lorenzo Musetti during their men's singles semi-final tennis match on Court Philippe-Chatrier at the Roland-Garros Stadium during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, in Paris on August 2, 2024. (Photo by PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA / AFP)

When Novak Djokovic's first berth in an Olympics tennis final was secured, when he was assured of a chance to win the gold medal that's missing from his lengthy list of accomplishments, he fell back on the clay, limbs spread apart — the sort of pose generally reserved for securing a championship.
“This,” he said after beating Lorenzo Musetti of Italy 6-4, 6-2 by taking the last four games, “is a big deal.”
Already the owner of a men's-record 24 Grand Slam titles and more weeks at No. 1 in the rankings than anyone in tennis history, Djokovic will try to add to his legacy when he faces Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday in the men's singles title match, The Associated Press reported.
Alcaraz was even more dominant in Friday's semifinals, eliminating Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada 6-1, 6-1.
Djokovic is 37, which makes him the oldest man to play in a Summer Games tennis final. Alcaraz is 21, which makes him the youngest.
“The way he’s playing, he’s definitely a favorite,” said Djokovic, who came into Friday 0-3 in Olympics semifinals.
Djokovic's best medal to date for Serbia was a bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games. Now he'll do no worse than a silver.
“Just to secure a higher medal for the first time for my country, whatever happens on Sunday, is a huge, obviously pride and honor and happiness — and that’s why I celebrated the way I did,” he said. “I still need to celebrate, because it’s a big success, of course.”
Was Musetti surprised to see the way Djokovic reacted?
“I know how much it means for ‘Nole’ to win a gold, to win a medal, of course,” Musetti replied, using Djokovic's nickname. “So, no, absolutely not.”
The final will be a rematch of the past two Wimbledon finals, each won by Alcaraz, including three weeks ago.
“It’s always really difficult facing Novak in every round,” Alcaraz said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s the first round or final.”
The Spaniard has four Grand Slam titles, one of which came in June at the French Open, the clay-court tournament held at Roland Garros, the site Olympics tennis is being played this year.
Djokovic got injured during the French Open, tearing the meniscus in his right knee and having surgery on June 5. He felt what he described as “sharp pain” while getting past Stefanos Tsitsipas in the quarterfinals Thursday night, but he seemed fine — and said he was — against Musetti after a lot of work with his physiotherapist to prepare.
“It didn’t bother me at all” Friday, Djokovic said, “so I'm really glad there’s nothing serious about it.”
He acknowledged feeling nervy and seemed that way, bothered by things such as the wind or the footing or the chair umpire calling him twice for time violations and then warning him for an audible obscenity. Over and over, Djokovic gestured at his team up in the stands, muttering or even yelling.
But his tennis was on point, other than when he got broken to begin the second set. Still, he quickly regrouped.
“He deserved to win,” said Musetti who also lost to Djokovic at the French Open and Wimbledon in 2024.
Earlier, with dozens of spectators waving red-and-yellow Spanish flags at Court Philippe Chatrier or yelling “Vamos, Carlos!” on a cloudy afternoon — and a soundtrack provided during breaks in the action by a brass band in the stands — Alcaraz was superb against Auger-Aliassime.
He never faced a break point. He won the point on 10 of 11 trips to the net. He made just 13 unforced errors, 10 fewer than Auger-Aliassime, who also lost to Alcaraz at this year’s French Open.
“I just couldn’t find a way to be comfortable in any pattern, any position. Whether it was trying to dominate the forehand cross-court or change of direction, the forehand inside-out, the backhand side,” Auger-Aliassime said. “Every aspect. The movement. The defense. I was dominated.”
Later Friday, Auger-Aliassime went back on court and teamed with Gabriela Dabrowski to give Canada the bronze in mixed doubles with a 6-3, 7-6 (2) win over Demi Schuurs and Wesley Koolhof of the Netherlands. The Czech Republic's Katerina Siniakova and Tomas Machac beat China's Wang Xinyu and Zhang Zhizhen 6-2, 5-7 (8) for gold.

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Fickle Winds Continue to Affect Olympic Sailing Medal Races

 Fickle winds continued to affect the first medal races for sailing at the Paris Olympics Friday (The AP)
 Fickle winds continued to affect the first medal races for sailing at the Paris Olympics Friday (The AP)
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Fickle Winds Continue to Affect Olympic Sailing Medal Races

 Fickle winds continued to affect the first medal races for sailing at the Paris Olympics Friday (The AP)
 Fickle winds continued to affect the first medal races for sailing at the Paris Olympics Friday (The AP)

Fickle winds continued to affect the first medal races for sailing at the Paris Olympics Friday, as officials hoped to squeeze four of them between the calm and hot morning and the strong thunderstorm expected to roll in in the late afternoon.

The women's skiffs started right after noon Friday, to the cheering of fans that waited for hours the day before under the punishing sun.

The Netherlands’ Odile van Aanholt and Annette Duetz won the gold medal with Sweden’s Vilma Bobeck and Rebecca Netzler coming in second. Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon of France finished third, The AP reported.

Both the men’s and women’s skiffs, known as 49erFX — powerful, bird-like two-person boats — were originally scheduled for Thursday but postponed due to a lack of wind.

Picon’s partner, Jean-Emmanuel Mestre, with their daughter Lou, 7, perched on his shoulders said the stress was palpable but their first goal was to support the athletes.

“We try to maintain our routine,” said Mestre. “It’s the same for everyone.”

The medal race for the men’s skiffs started twice Thursday in Marseille before being abandoned after the light wind died, leaving athletes broiling in the heat on the water in the interval for several hours.

“It was an emotional roller coaster,” said Isaac McHardie of New Zealand, which was third entering the medal race for the men’s skiffs called 49ers.

After the skiffs, the agenda Friday has the windsurfing men’s and women’s medal races. If they can’t be run, they might be pushed back another day.

Also starting on Friday was a new sailing event, the mixed-gender dinghy called 470 — introduced this year to even out medal opportunities between men and women for the first time. And the men's and women's dinghies should be continuing their races, too, making for quite a crowd in Marseille's beautiful, monument-fringed bay.

Officials were working on alternative plans for the medal races if the weather doesn’t collaborate, as it hasn’t since the sailing competition started Sunday. Races have been routinely delayed, and a windsurfing “marathon” Wednesday was also abandoned more than an hour into it.

In sailing, points are accumulated over multiple regattas over multiple days, with the medal races usually counting for double points. But largely because of the fickle conditions, nobody in the skiffs has yet a clear grasp of the podium.

The men’s team from Spain and the women’s team from France were in the lead going into the medal races after 12 regattas.

In windsurfing, where the rules are a bit different, two athletes have made it far enough into the rankings to be guaranteed a medal — Emma Wilson of Britain and Grae Morris of Austrialia. Everyone else is still in the cliffhanger.

The uncertainty makes the delays and abandoned races particularly painful, and the heat also takes a physical toll.

On Thursday, the skiffs sat on the water in their protective gear under a punishing sun with temperatures pushing 35 degrees Celsius (low 90s), with some athletes running low on water and ice as they waited. Temperatures were expected to soar even higher on Friday.

For athletes, the biggest challenge was to be both switched on for the peak moment of their career — and relaxed enough not to waste physical and mental energy on what they can't control.

“It's part of sailing," Duetz said Thursday after the women waited about an hour in their skiffs but their race never started.

The fans were trying to take it in stride too, welcoming the skiffs back with cheers and waving flags Thursday evening after sweltering on a shadeless breakwater most of the afternoon. Among them were the families of France’s Sarah Steyaert and Charline Picon, who were first on the women’s start list.

“So exciting and so nervous and so anxious,” is how Steyaert’s father, Patrick Steyaert, summed up the wait, while Sarah’s 5-year-old daughter threw herself into her mother’s arms, weeping.