It is official. Novak Djokovic will not be a Golden Slam winner. In the grand scheme of things, this does not matter.

Although it would have been nice for Novak to hold all four slams and a gold medal, from a professional tennis perspective, the Grand Slam is where it’s at. The last person to accomplish this feat was Rod Laver. He did this twice, both in 1962 and 1969. For whatever reason, Novak can’t win at the Olympics. It seems to be his kryptonite. In 2016 he famously crashed out to a red hot Del Potro. In Tokyo, it was Zverev in the semis and Carreno Busta in the Bronze medal match.

None of this will affect Novak Djokovic’s confidence though. He is as mentally tough as they come. He will reset and get himself ready for the US Open. He’ll now fly to the US for the hard-court swing, where he’ll participate in both Cincinnati and Toronto. Then it’s off to New York, where they will allow full capacity. The stadiums will be bumping for sure. The anticipation for his expected run at the US Open will be like nothing he will have ever experienced. No doubt he will be under immense pressure and a little bit nervous.

However, we must keep in mind that there is still absolutely no challenger that can beat Novak in a best of five set match – especially on a hard court. If the Olympics would have been best of five, Novak would have won his first gold medal. Unfortunately for Novak, they are not best of five. Which puts in question the significance of Olympic tennis. If the Olympics wants to be as important as a Grand Slam every four years, they need to best of five sets. Otherwise, it just plays like any other small tournament on the ATP Tour, and it’s certainly not at the level of any Grand Slams, or Masters 1000 events for that matter. Either way, don’t look too much into Novak losing in the Olympics. He’s still the overwhelming favorite at the US Open.

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