The triumph of a life was in the desire.

On the courage not to wrinkle in the face of an unflattering outlook.

Pablo Carreño, Olympic bronze with exponential value, because for this he had to tame the tyrant of world tennis.

He did it, defeating a

Novak Djokovic

who appeared in Tokyo with ambitions to make history with the Golden Slam, in two hours and 47 minutes (6-4, 6-7 (8) and 6-3) to tie the fifth medal of the Spanish delegation in Tokyo.

Carreño had to sweat it, go to the epic before the genius of Belgrade, make him lose his patience and composure. He was able to achieve his dream of a medal already in the second set, with a match point from which Djokovic escaped bravely. But, emotionally broken, falon and mischievous, Nole - who was going to save up to five more in the final pure agony - ended up succumbing to the solidity of the Gijon, fists in the wind in the

Central of Ariake Park

, tears and medal hugs.

Carreño's tournament had been flawless until the semi-final Rubicon, where he found himself fully inspired by

Karen Khachanov

(6-3 and 6-3). Despite the disappointment and the dark horizon of contesting the bronze against the world number one, the Asturian did not give up. "Today's defeat (by Friday) cannot cost me another tomorrow," he announced.

Djokovic woke up solid in the sun on Center Court, perhaps the hottest day of the Games. Some stretch showed his enormous effort the day before, where he lost both the individual against

Zverev

(1-6, 6-3 and 6-1) and the mixed double later against the Russian couple. A good suffocation after going to Tokyo after two and a half months without knowing what a stumbling block was, in search of the mythical Golden Slam (only

Steffi Graff

in 1988 had won the big four plus Olympic gold in Seoul). But in the fifth game, after having suffered with his first two serves, Carreño took advantage of the Serbian's deconcentration, unforced errors for a hopeful blank break.

That kept him in suspense until he won the set with a great 'ace', the first in the 50 minutes of the game.

Carreño had wasted two points from previous sets to the rest and had also saved others from break.

One set from the medal, both exchanged their serve without major shocks until the tie break.

There, Carreño had it really close after lifting a 4-1.

A bronze point that Djokovic solved by taking his genius out of the hat, two great serves plus an unforced error by the Spanish gave him the equalizer set.

Carreño had shown stupendous solidity, but Nole had escaped hell and that was not good news.

After both taking a break in the dressing room, the one from Belgrade returned with the sharp fang.

And in that agonizing first game in which Nole even had a break point, he was really the key.

Because Carreño clung to the battle with all his self-love, saved him and managed to win his serve while Djokovic lost the game and the head: he threw the racket to the second tier (empty, fortunately without spectators), in a gesture that reminded when the ball hit the ball boy at the US Open, precisely the only time the Spaniard had beaten him.

After that, the best Pablo emerged, confident, without loopholes, to cautiously approach the medal.

Djokovic kept screaming, breaking rackets and losing points.

And scratched until the very end, in which he saved up to five match balls.

Carreño leaves Ariake Park after having plucked, nothing less than number one and number two in the world (

Medvedev

in quarters).

Tomorrow he will be on the podium with Zverez and Khachanov, who will play for gold.

The bronze, the fifth medal of a Spanish delegation that scared off all the previous bad days in a few hours, is the greatest success in the career of the Gijon, who the week before the Games had raised his first ATP 500 in Hamburg.

It was his sixth title after Winston-Salem and Moscow (2016), Estoril (2017), Chengdu (2019) and Marbella (2021).

That of the Asturian, number 11 in the world, is the 13th Olympic medal in Spanish tennis.

The last individual had been Nadal's gold in Beijing.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Tennis JJOO

  • Spain Olympics

  • sports

  • Novak Djokovic

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Tokyo Olympics Novak Djokovic's Day of Despair

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