The tennis player Novak Djokovic found himself at number 1 in the world rankings. He very much wanted to win all four grand slam tournaments in one calendar year and win gold at the Olympics that would take place that year in Seoul. He would then be the second tennis player ever to achieve that: only Steffi Graf managed to win the Golden Grand Slam. Djokovic could also pass the twenty grand slam titles of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal: if Djokovic won all the grand slams of 2021, he would stand at 21 grand slam titles.

Djokovic triumphed at the Australian Open, Rolland Garros (where he managed to come back after losing two sets) and Wimbledon. During the Olympics, the players competed for only two sets won, while during the grand slams, they played for 3 sets won. During the Olympics, Djokovic won the first set in the semifinals against German Zverev, but was still eliminated. A golden grand slam was therefore no longer in the cards. During the last grand slam of the year, the US Open, Djokovic managed to reach the final. Here he has to take on the Russian Daniil Medvedev, who until then had lost only one set in the entire tournament.

Novak Djokovic had massive support from the crowd, but was not strong enough to beat his opponent during the final of the US Open. Medvedev was in good shape and served ironically. Djokovic was broken right away on his own serve and when he got chances on during Medvedev's service games, he did not take advantage of them. It was 4-6, 4-6, 4-6. Daniil Medvedev won his first grand slam title and the grand slam dream of Novak Djokovic fell apart.