Novak Djokovic faced boos during his Olympics showdown with Carlos Alcaraz on Sunday. The Serb seemed confused early in his match against his Wimbledon nemesis as jeers were heard from the Roland Garros crowd.

Djokovic is playing in his first Olympic final despite this being his fifth attempt at winning gold at the Games. He had previously never advanced beyond the semi-final, but ended that hoodoo by comfortably defeating Lorenzo Musetti in the last-four in Paris.

But if the 37-year-old veteran was hoping for some support for the crowd then he might have been misguided. Up against the hugely popular Alcaraz, the controversial 24-time Grand Slam champion was not the fans’ favourite in France.

With the score at 2-1 and 40-40 in the first set, Djokovic appeared agitated and started gesticulating to his coaching box. There was clearly an issue with his performance after missing three opportunities to break Alcaraz and go 3-1 ahead.

However, the mini pause in play did not go down well with the crowd, who might have thought that he was gesturing to them. They started to boo Djokovic for taking his time in being ready for the next point.

The jeers seemed to confuse Djokovic, who did not understand why the crowd were unhappy. He gestured with his left arm as if to ask why they were booing.

“I’m not sure why there are boos. He was gesturing to his box, he’s entitled to do that,” BBC commentator Simon Reed said.

Djokovic has defeated Musetti, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Dominik Koepfer, Rafael Nadal and Matthew Ebden to reach the final. He has played through a knee issue that surfaced against Tsitsipas, and now has the chance to win his first Olympic gold medal.

“I have been waiting for this for almost 20 years,” Djokovic said in his on-court interview after beating Musetti. “I’ve played four Olympic games, this is my fifth and I’ve never passed semi-finals.

“I lost three semi-finals in my first four Olympic games. I managed to overcome this big hurdle. I must be honest and say that I was thinking about all the semi-finals that I lost.”

Meanwhile, Alcaraz said ahead of the match: “Well, honestly it’s going to be a really special moment for me, for my life in my career, so I’m going to try to enjoy this moment because it’s going to be really difficult.

“It’s going to be difficult for sure but I will try to be focused on myself. I try not to hear all the fans, or all the people that say I’m going to win. I’m just going to give my 100 per cent, my best tennis and hopefully I reach my goal to get the gold.”