Novak Djokovic in pursuit of 'Golden Slam' in Paris Olympics | The French Connection | NBC Sports

uh someone who has had success in Paris through the years he's had success everywhere all around the globe is trying to win that elusive gold medal in Mr Novak jovic so Sam I ask you this has been an incredible thing we won't get into him yet but one of the things it's been so difficult to do for players through the years is win all four grand slams which is winning all on different surfaces and then winning an actual gold medal in singles at the Olympics and Novak has not been able to do that he's done everything else he has every other record but of course Andre Agassi did it he won four Slams on different surfaces he won the gold medal Stephie graph did it in one year in 1988 which is a feat that no one will probably ever do Novak had a chance to do it um but wasn't able to do it of course rapael Nadal has also won all four grand slams and the gold medal in singles and I believe he won the doubles as well and of course Serena Williams who's won everything singles the doubles mult times I mean when she's the goat when it comes to the singles doubles and all the things Olympics but tell me what the hell Noak hasn't even won a tournament this year Sam what is going on it has he been leading up to this moment you know I would love to sit down and have a cannon conversation with him and know does it bother him that you don't have an Olympic gold medal like really get the answer from deep inside is is that something that worries you do you think about about that is that will that like make everything in your career kind of culminate and and be that much more special I would I would love to know because if you were to ask him I'm sure he'd kind of give a you know somewhat of a political answer of like yeah of course I'd love to win it but I've I've won all these other things and that's kind of it but I think deep down he wants to win it it's like you said it's the only thing he hasn't accomplished he wants to get on this list of four other players to have uh accomplished that feat and so um you know he hasn't had a great year in in terms of what he's used to but uh he did just final Wimbledon you know bad year or not final the Grand Slam is pretty impressive so he's he's got to have a little more confidence right now than he did four or five months ago and and I do think uh the Olympics you know two out of three sets I think he's just everything that's in his tank I think he's gonna lay it out there and try to get that gold medal because then then he's got everything there's nothing you can say that the guy hasn't accomplished and um yeah so that's that's where I that's where I'm going with it yeah I agree I think that he his intentions and I kind of have talked about it through the year I think other than winning the grand slams we know that's the most important thing for him to do but I actually think that he set his schedule to try and win a gold medal at at the Olympics in Paris I I feel like when you've already accomplished everything in your career there's nothing there's no other record other than I think maybe Jimmy Connor's amount of of tournaments at ATP level um I think it's the only record he doesn't own and there's one other Roger record that I think he doesn't own but other than that he has every record he's proven himself to be you know the greatest of all times when it comes to all the numbers the guy has done it all but he hasn't got a gold medal and we've seen the way he's left the court many times at the Olympics in absolute tears and we don't see that when he loses matches on the ATP Tour or even at Grand Slam level so how much do you think his love of Serbia of wanting to do that is also you know making him and pressing him to to to do this and maybe it's going to be a random thing that he hasn't won a tournament all year but this is the one that he's going to win yeah I think if he wins no tournaments all year and wins the Olympic gold medal honestly in his mind he might look at it as 2024 was the greatest year of my tennis life yeah to to get a gold medal to do it for Serbia you know Serbia is a somewhat smaller country they're they're great in men's basketball obviously tennis they've they've got looks at medals but there's not many sports that they have chances in to get gold medal so I think I think you're right it's not only for him it's it's for his country and and I think you know Serbian people that they're passionate people and he's he's one of those and I think he wants it for his country yeah I mean look there's no doubt in my mind I think he set out the year to have his not his best result but certainly one of his best results of the year in Paris so the year is going quickly we have played three grand slams and he has not won not only a grand slam slam which is unheard of but he hasn't won a tournament this year um and I think it helps you as you already pointed out Sam getting the finals of won certainly helps him feel like he can get through a tournament um with the the knee and and he's clearly got a couple of weeks now under his belt to be even stronger physically to get onto the clay um and I think as you you and I both know Clay is probably the easiest on your body um because you can slide to the ball you're not pounding that knee on a hard court or on even on grass where you're having to really bend a lot um so for me as he already points out here it's a completely different surface that he's going back on um and he injured himself on that surface um but I think I think physically clay will be a little bit better for him yeah and the two out of three sets you know he doesn't have to know like all right I at no point does he have to dig deep and play matches that are potentially four hours long yeah I think you know the knee maybe it's still a little sore I'm sure it'll be fine by the Olympics but you know he's he's got it he knows in the back of his mind the longest I'm going to go is two and a half hours and my knee is going to be able to withstand that so I think he's going in with the with the mental kind of um Clarity that his body is going to be 100% ready to go to you know possibly win the gold medal yeah and we're seeing the training on his Instagram and he's certainly putting in the yards