Emotional Carlos Alcaraz relives loss to Novak Djokovic at Paris Olympics

Just weeks after winning the French Open at Roland Garros, Alcaraz was the favourite to win singles gold for Spain at the very same venue in Paris.

But he came up against a determined Novak Djokovic, and it was the all-time tennis great as he claimed a tight 7-6 (7-3), 7-6 (7-2) victory to become only the fifth man in history to complete the Career Golden Slam (winning all four Grand Slams and gold in the singles at the Olympics).

Both the victor and the runner-up were in tears after the match, but Alcaraz was barely able to compose himself for the interview with Eurosport's Alex Corretja.

"I gave everything," the youngster said through tears after the Djokovic loss. "It's painful to lose the way I lost this match. I had my chances to probably be up in the match. I couldn't take it. Novak was playing great. He deserves this."

That defeat came just days after he and the great Rafael Nadal were knocked out of the quarter-finals of the men's doubles in what was also a painful moment for Spain as it was the 22-time Grand Slam winner's last appearance at the Olympics.

Nearly seven months later, Alcaraz has opened up about that heartbreaking defeat as he admitted he felt he let his country down by not winning gold.

"It was a difficult moment. The truth is that it was a difficult moment because my objective from the beginning of the year was to win the gold medal," the four-time Grand Slam winner said on MoluscoTV YouTube Channel.

"And that week I felt the need to do it. In the end that feeling can be wrong - to feel the need to do something - so in that moment when I didn't do it, obviously after a defeat, 10-15 minutes after an objective you haven't been able to complete, it's difficult to put everything in perspective.

"And in that moment I felt that I had let my country down, that I had let the Spanish people down, for not winning the gold medal that everyone was expecting.

"And that's why I reacted like that, letting my feelings go, and obviously speaking to the cameras, expressing myself in that moment, and showing to my country and to the world how I felt, I think it was necessary."

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