“What are you still doing here?” Daniil Medvedev joked to Novak Djokovic following the Serb’s historic 24th Grand Slam triumph.
“I don’t know, when are you planning to slow down a little bit?” the Russian enquired.
It is a fair question.
Overcoming Medvedev in straight sets on Sunday, 36-year-old Djokovic equalled Margaret Court’s all-time record of 24 major singles titles to stand at the pinnacle of his sport.
And it appeared to mean more than any other before it. The emotion came pouring out of Djokovic as the magnitude of his achievement sank in, before the celebrations with his family and team members commenced.
“This is one of the biggest achievements in sport history,” his coach Goran Ivanisevic later declared. “We’re not talking about tennis. We are talking generally, in sport.”
He added: “If he wins 25, he’s going to think ‘why not 26?’ It’s always one more, something more.
“He’s taking care of his body, he’s taking care of everything, every single detail has to be perfect.”
