ITF

101 SYDNEY 2000 MEN'S SINGLES GOLD U nforgettable! I can describe it in one word – unforgettable! Probably the fact that I'm a gold medal champion makes it even sweeter. But it's one lifetime experience that I'll never forget. It was probably one of my ultimate goals of life that I set for myself. All the other goals had been accomplished, winning the Slam, being No. 1 in the world, and obviously the gold medal was probably the pinnacle of all that I wanted to accomplish. In my own country definitely people recognise you being an Olympic champion and they don't recognise me as a Grand Slam winner or former world No. 1. They recognise me as the Olympic champion, but again this is my country. You can debate as much as you want about which one is more important for the professional tennis player, but I value the Olympic gold medal probably as much as Grand Slam titles, maybe even more just because of the fact it's only once every four years. Once you're on the court competing in the Olympic tournament you feel like you just don't belong to yourself. You're competing for your whole country that you represent. I think that's the main difference compared to all the other Grand Slam events. I wouldn't say it was tough. The whole tournament I think I beat Mark Philippoussis in the third round, then it was Guga [Kuerten] also straight sets in the quarters, Arnaud Di Pasquale in the semis and also quite comfortably, but the final was really an epic battle, a five-setter. To be honest, playing the final match I thought, "Look, this is once in a lifetime. You just can't lose, you can't lose." That was my approach to the match and probably towards the end it just gave me that spark, that feeling that I needed to push extra just to be able to beat my opponent. I flew from Sydney directly home to my hometown of Sochi. There was a little ceremony. Yeah. I remember it was really special and something I will never forget. The medal is with my parents. They obviously didn't want to give this medal to me for my own apartment. They just keep it in their house. So every time I go to their place I see it. My trophies are in my flat. I know what the Olympic gold medal meant for them. I belong to the game of tennis, and tennis has made me who I am. I never thought just because I won the gold medal that I was more special than anybody else. I think the Olympic tournament is very special, and you could participate in every Grand Slam tournament throughout the whole year and yet never be a part of the Olympic tournament. I think the Olympic tournament is very important to the career of the professional tennis player. All the athletes from the Russian teams, they recognised me just because I was playing tennis. That was the cool part. One girl who was not very famous at the time – Yelena Isinbayeva the pole vaulter. It was her first time participating. I didn't know who she was, and she took a photo, and a few years later she became famous, she won the Olympics in Athens and in Beijing. When we see each other we always laugh about it. I value the Olympic gold medal probably as much as Grand Slam titles, maybe even more just because of the fact it's only once every four years.

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