Carreno Busta looks back on one of his greatest successes: "I knew mentally it was going to be tough for him"

As part of Eurosport's documentary "En route pour Paris", Pablo Carreno Busta agreed to look back on one of the greatest successes of his career.

The Spaniard, back from injury since the French Open and trying to rediscover his best tennis (currently ranked 796th), spoke about his match against Novak Djokovic at the 2021 Olympic Games.

As a reminder, Carreno Busta managed to topple Djokovic in the small final of the Olympic event (6-4, 6-7, 6-3), winning the bronze medal in Tokyo.

The 32-year-old explained that he had taken advantage of the fact that the Serb was probably more affected than he was by his semi-final defeat (Carreno Busta had been beaten by Khachanov when Djokovic fell to Zverev):
"I was really focused from the start. I knew what I had to do, and I knew that he would perhaps be more affected than me by the defeat in the semi-final, because his objective was to win gold.

He was going to the Olympics to win gold, which was the only thing he had left to do to complete his immense palmarès.

I knew that mentally it was going to be tough for him, and it's true that he started the match as if he wanted to go very fast, as if he wanted to say to himself: 'Well, I'm the best, I'm going to win and that's it, I'm going to get rid of this guy quickly and then that's it'."