Until further notice, the biggest drama in tennis, and perhaps all of sports, is: Will anyone stop Novak Djokovic?
Djokovic is unequivocally the best men’s tennis player in the world, as he’s been for a good long while, and after his triumph in Sunday’s Wimbledon men’s final—which joins his 2021 triumphs at the Australian and French Opens—he’s just one major tournament title (the upcoming U.S. Open) away from completing the pinnacle achievement of the sport, the single-year, calendar “Grand Slam.”
Yowza. For additional luster, Djokovic could add a gold medal at the upcoming Summer Olympics in Tokyo, lifting that potential Grand Slam into a “Golden” One, but on Sunday he indicated that the recent tightening of Covid-19 restrictions has him reconsidering his participation in the event.
“My plan was always to go to Olympic Games, but right now I’m a little bit divided,” Djokovic said.
It’d be an extraordinary accomplishment, either way. Djokovic would be the first men’s player to pull off a Grand Slam since Rod Laver, who first did it as an amateur in 1962, and then as a pro in 1969. Don Budge is the only other men’s player to win all four in a single year. Only Steffi Graf (1988) has managed a “Golden Slam.”
