Top seeds crack at the biggest sports festival

“IF I die, who will take responsibility?” was the effectively melodramatic question, put to the presiding umpire by Russian Olympic Association’s Daniil Medvedev mid match against Italy’s Fabio Fognini.

The unprecedented hot and humid conditions had already seen Spain’s Paula Badosa removed from the court in a wheelchair, suffering defeat from heat exhaustion, and World No 1 Novak Djokovic had weighed in heavily, declaring that in all his years of playing tennis he’d never experienced such dangerous temperatures.

He urged the International Tennis Federation to move all matches from morning to evening, which they subsequently did. God forbid a World No 1 or 2 expired on their watch.

As it so happened both Medvedev and Djokovic did prematurely ‘expire’, but not at the hand of Mother Nature. The Serb, who has looked invincible all year, was stopped dead in his tracks, first by Germany’s Alexander Zverev and then by the Russian duo (in mixed doubles) of Aslan Karatsev and Elena Vesnina.

The Serbian Olympic captain, Viktor Troicki, rued the Serb’s insistence that he play the mixed, having strongly advised Djokovic to focus solely on the singles. “The whole team was against it (participation in the mixed) but he wouldn’t listen … ”

And there was no doubt, that for a man whose serve has only been broken once in an entire tournament, to be broken four times in the same set and furthermore to lose seven games in a row from a position of ascendency, is a sure sign of severe exhaustion. But all hail Zverev, who in his debut Olympics, has toppled the top seed to reach the final.

It’s worth remembering that the Serb got eliminated in round one of his first Olympics in 2016 and World Women No 1, Ashleigh Barty, has suffered the same fate in her debut attempt. She fared better in the mixed doubles with partner John Peers. The Australians, like the Serbs, fell in the semis to another ROC combination of Andrey Rublev and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

As for Zverev, he will have assuaged the pain of so narrowly losing the 2020 US Open final, with both an Olympic medal – something to hold over Djokovic and Roger Federer – and a big confidence boost in seeking redemption at this year’s US Open, the next Major on the cards.