Weekend Review: Paris is alive for the Olympics as Djokovic ends Nadal run

The Paris 2024 Olympics kicked off in amazing fashion over the weekend, with Novak Djokovic’s clash against Rafael Nadal taking centre stage on Monday afternoon. 

What a weekend of sport we just witnessed last week. Last weekend will definitely go down as one of the most memorable ones in history. 

It was a weekend like no other as there was a major event that got the whole world talking, while there were many historic clashes in different sports. 

As we do every week, Housebets review some of these sporting events that were the talk of the town last weekend. 

Paris lits up for the 2024 Olympics 

The Paris 2024 Olympics is in full flow, with the opening ceremony kicking off things on Friday night. 

Although the games started two days earlier, the opening ceremony kicked off things officially on Friday evening. 

Unlike the past Olympic Games opening ceremony, the Paris 2024 ceremony took a different approach, taking place on the River Seine. 

The ceremony did show the beautiful city of Paris, with the bright colours setting the city of love alive. 

Although it rained, it was not enough to stop the people there from celebrating. It was indeed beautiful to see all the athletes of the countries participating in Paris being ushered away on boats, with some of the iconic landmarks of Paris serving as backdrops. 

The most popular athlete at the ceremony was Lebron James, who was the United States of America’s men’s flagbearer alongside Coco Jones. 

It was indeed a night of celebration for all the athletes in attendance. However, the ceremony was not without controversy. 

Criticisms were directed at the decision to have drag queens as part of the ceremony. But the biggest controversy was the organisers' decision to have the drag queens parody “The Last Supper” painting of Leonardo da Vinci. 

Nonetheless, it was an event that had stars from different walks of life in attendance. The show also saw legendary singer Celine Dion perform for the first time in months and 24 years after she gave that iconic performance at the Atalanta 96’ Olympics. 

The event rounded up with legendary athletes like Rafael Nadal, Zinedine Zidane, Serena Williams, Carl Lewis and Tony Parker carrying the iconic Olympic Torch. 

Djokovic wins last dance against Rafael Nadal 

When the Men’s Singles draw of the Paris 2024 Olympics tennis was conducted, one of the major headlines from the draw was a possible matchup between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal. 

The two were on collision course in round two provided they both came through their opening round matches. 

Djokovic had no trouble in his opening round, seeing off Matt Ebden 6-0, 6-1. Initially, it looked like the last dance would not happen after reports emerged that Nadal could pull out of his opening round match against Marton Fucsovics due to injury. 

But the Spaniard took to court and battled to a gritty three-set win over the Hungarian to set up a mouth-watering clash against his rival. 

Going into the highly-anticipated match, Djokovic was the heavy favourite as Nadal was still building up his fitness level, having missed a year of playing. 

It looked like it would be a walk in the park as Djokovic raced into a 5-0 lead in the opening set on Monday afternoon. 

Although Nadal avoided a bagel, Djokovic wasted no time in seeing out the first set 6-1. The second set looked to be following the same pattern as Djokovic went up a double break to take a 4-0 lead. However, having won the French Open on the same ground 14 times, Nadal refused to bow out without giving it a fight. 

Remarkably, Nadal broke Djokovic twice to get the second set back on serve. But the Spaniard could not sustain the momentum as Djokovic broke Nadal back immediately before serving out a 6-1, 6-4 win, securing his spot in the third round of the Paris 2024 Olympics. 

Hamilton snatches victory from Russell 

Lewis Hamilton is back winning Formula 1 races again, although not in the way he would have wished. 

The seven-time champion won the Belgian Grand Prix after the original race winner George Russell was disqualified for an underweight car. 

Russell had won on the track, with Hamilton finishing second to ensure a 1-2 finish for Mercedes. 

However, Russell was disqualified from the race after the technical committee stated his car was underweight. 

Mercedes' prospects looked good going into the race after the season leader and defending champion Max Verstappen started in P11. 

The race started with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc making a good start from pole position but was overtaken after two laps by Hamilton. 

Hamilton looked to be on course for his fifth win at Spa, but Russell was able to go past him and take control of the race. 

Although Hamilton went close, it was Russell who drove past the chequered flag first. But despite coming second, Hamilton would not be denied as he was upgraded to first after Russell’s disqualification.