No, I don't really have to accept that Novak Djokovic is the GOAT just because he won the Olympics gold
In July 2021, right after Novak Djokovic defeated Matteo Berrettini to win the Wimbledon title, I went viral for all the wrong reasons. A lifelong Roger Federer fan, I had tried to capture the Serb's greatness (and my dislike of it) in a way that I thought would be an interesting read. I seemed to have succeeded in the attempt, even if a few hundred death threats came my way.
That Wimbledon win was Djokovic's 20th Grand Slam title. That was the Major with which he tied Federer and Nadal in the Slam race. Today, three years later, Djokovic has 24 to his name. Federer, still with 20, is out retired, and has taken on the mantle of a hobbyist traveller who wanders the globes enjoying the hidden beauties of the natural world. Nadal, now with 22, is a dad and almost on the verge of joining his Swiss friend on the sidelines.
What is Djokovic doing? Well, he is still getting on my nerves. Just this Sunday, I had to watch him do yet another impossible thing. Hobbling on one knee and amped up on 'Inat,' the 37-year-old showed Carlos Alcaraz what it feels like to come up against a man who is backed into a corner and would rather die than not get the thing he wanted the most in the world.
Djokovic had been to the Olympics four times before: bronze in Sydney, nothing in London, first round exit in Rio, fourth place in Tokyo. For the average tennis player - nay, even for a world class tennis player - this is GOOD. This is acceptable. This is the way of the world. But not for this son of Belgrade.
For someone who had made a career out of winning things, the lack of an Olympics gold hurt. Really badly. Especially when his arch-rival Nadal had one (two if you count doubles). Another of his biggest rivals, Andy Murray, had two (both in singles). Yet another of his rivals, Federer, did not have gold in singles but he still had a silver, one better than him. And the Swiss also had a doubles gold.
So it made sense that the Paris Olympics would be Djokovic's main goal for the year. Forget the Australian Open, the French Open, the Wimbledon, the US Open; the Olympics was it. It was where he would 'complete' tennis and show the world that there was not a single title he could not win.
And he did. Very annoyingly, he did. I watched him do it every day, fuming and muttering under my breath. First I thought Stefanos Tsitsipas would beat him. After all, the Greek was leading by two breaks in the second set, and Djokovic was on the bench complaining to his doctor about his knee. This was it, I thought. Foolishly. Father Time has the last laugh, I thought. Idiotically.
Novak Djokovic did not even lose a set to Tsitsipas that day. Then I thought Lorenzo Musetti would do it. After all, the Italian was in the form of his life, and his opponent was physically falling apart. How very stupid of me. Djokovic did not even lose a set to Musetti that day.
No big deal. In the final was Carlos Alcaraz. The Chosen One. I am not sure if angels came down from the sky and sang near his bed when his mom gave birth to him, but I wouldn't question it if someone told me that happened. Such is Alcaraz's aura, to use an often misused word. Federer's finesse, Nadal's doggedness, and Djokovic's own mental monstrosity. The perfect love-child of the Big-3.
Here was Alcaraz, who had just beaten Djokovic in the final at Wimbledon last month. Three flawless sets on grass, a surface the Serb had feasted on almost every year. Now, on clay, surely Alcaraz, the defending French Open champion, would do better. Plus, Djokovic was physically falling apart. He was on half a knee, to put it kindly. Surely Alcaraz would do it. Right? RIGHT?
Novak Djokovic did not even lose a set to the Spaniard that day. That day, which now feels like it was a million years ago. Two tiebreakers. Two determined stalwarts, one a little more determined than the other. 37 years vs 21 years. No, scratch that. This was 17 years of pent-up frustration, channeling itself against a boy who did not know what he had signed up for.
Alcaraz had seen Djokovic before, but he had not seen THIS Djokovic. This was a Whitespine Uncaged, to a borrow a term from Brandon Sanderson. This was a Djokovic who would not lose. Destiny? Maybe. But did that really matter?
Alcaraz could have prepared for that final a million different ways and come up with billion different plans, but he was never winning. Djokovic was always going to cry tears of joy. Djokovic was always going to hug his daughter. Djokovic was always going to bite that blasted gold medal.
This brings us to the question: Is Novak Djokovic now the undisputed GOAT? He has the most Grand Slams in the Open Era. He has the most Masters 1000 titles. He has the most ATP Finals titles. The Olympics gold is done now. He has the most weeks as World No. 1. Most year-end No. 1 finishes. He has done it all. He has done it better than anyone else. So that settles it, right?
Well, NO!
First of all, those who said Novak Djokovic was not the GOAT before the Paris Olympics, never said it just because he did not have the gold. The Olympics means a lot, sure, but that alone had never been the one thing that had stopped Djokovic from being the GOAT (at least that is what I honestly think). It does give the Serb nice closure, it makes him happy. But as for it being the difference being the GOAT and not the GOAT? Sorry, no.
Secondly, there is a lot of ambiguity about the term 'Greatest' that cannot be solved in any meaningful way. Is Novak Djokovic the most successful tennis player of all time? Yes, sure, 100%. I will sign an affidavit stating that that is true. Is Djokovic the winning-est of tennis players in all of history? Yes sir. No one can come close to him. But the 'Greatest'? I beg to differ.
One could argue, very well in fact, that Federer has been instrumental in making tennis a household name in Europe, even in Asia. There is a reason he is so beloved everywhere. There is a reason he is still near the top of the highest-paid athletes in the world, even after retirement.
He had a game that drew people in, and then he kept them enchanted for years. He made life-long followers of the sport; he made sure Grand Slams became a festival every time he reached a final.
Serena Williams did the same for tennis, and also for women's sports in the US. She broke barriers of race and class, and she did it coming from a background that very rarely reached the upper echelons of tennis.
Steffi Graf did great things. Andre Agassi did great things. Bjorn Borg. Pete Sampras. Rafael Nadal. Rod Laver. Every single one of them did great, excellent things in some way that can be made into an argument if you put your mind to it.
This is precisely where the G in the GOAT debate fails. 'Greatest' is a very flawed concept to define people by. There will always be too many opinions, and once someone has decided they like one, it is very hard to convince them against it. Everyone is right, and no one is wrong. You are right, and everyone else is wrong. Just as well.
Here comes the tricky part, and where I step into the pool of controversy: There are, unfortunately, plenty of valid reasons that undermine Novak Djokovic's greatness outside tennis. I will not get into detail on any of them, but you already know what I am going to talk about.
The fact that he did not get the COVID-19 vaccine at the height of the pandemic, when scientists were begging people to get vaccinated. Was he right in calling it bodily autonomy? Yes. But was it morally questionable that an athlete of such high stature in the world do it without also properly informing his fans of the importance of the vaccine? Also yes. Don't get me wrong, Djokovic has made it exceedingly clear that he is not 'antivaxx,' as the kids would call it. But his actions are not anti-antivaxx either.
Then there is the fact that he endorsed a controversial Bosnian pyramid with healing powers, and a pseudoscience 'wellness expert' who claimed that water can be energetically transformed through thoughts. NONE OF THIS takes away from his tennis on the court. He is still a genius within the lines of the game. But outside of it? In this age of fast-acting fakenews and anti-scientific nonsense? It is more than enough to turn your nose up at someone.
So, no, I do not have to acknowledge the claims that Novak Djokovic is now the undisputed GOAT in the tennis world. People will come up to me and say that I should only judge him for what he does in the sport, that I should separate the art from the artist, and that it is 'woke' to say he is not the greatest of all time.
But I cannot. This is the hill that I have chosen to die on, as I am sure plenty of others have. Are their reasons going to be the same as mine? Probably not. It doesn't matter anyway. Nothing has changed for us after the Paris Olympics, even if we have become a little more salty.
Novak Djokovic is a great, great tennis player. I only wish he were slightly different in the way he acts when he is not carrying a tennis racket, so that I could enjoy him more.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are personal, and not something that Sportskeeda necessarily endorses.