Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz will kind a doubles staff on the 2024 Olympic Video games in Paris. The information was formally confirmed on Wednesday by David Ferrer, the captain of the Spanish males’s staff, at an occasion held on the Actual Membership de Tennis Barcelona. The Spanish line-up in Paris will even embrace Pablo Carreno Busta, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and Marcel Granollers.
“As you all know, one of many doubles groups can be fashioned by Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal,” Ferrer stated of the 2 former No. 1s within the PIF ATP Rankings, who will even each compete in singles. “The second staff is but to be determined, it’s not 100 per cent sure. There’s a clear concept, however we’re going to attend slightly to resolve it. If nothing occurs to stop it, Rafa and Carlos can be taking part in collectively in Paris.”
Discuss a dream duo 🤩 🤝 pic.twitter.com/ie0W5nK9PD
— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 12, 2024
Alcaraz should modify to having a teammate by his facet on courtroom; his historical past in doubles is a brief one. In his skilled profession, the Murcia native has solely performed 9 matches within the staff format, none of them coming up to now two seasons. Whereas his meteoric rise to the highest of males’s tennis got here off the again of little or no expertise on the large phases, adapting to the staff self-discipline will present a brand new alternative for the prodigy from El Palmar to indicate off his means to be taught rapidly.
For his half, Nadal is among the most skilled gamers on Tour with regards to the Olympics. The Mallorcan is the one energetic male participant to have gained a gold medal in singles and doubles, a becoming report on the four-yearly occasion for one of many sport’s most legendary gamers.
The Spaniard gained gold in Beijing in 2008, shortly earlier than changing into World No. 1 for the primary time. At Rio de Janeiro 2016, Nadal accomplished his set by climbing to the highest of the doubles podium alongside his shut good friend Marc Lopez. That is now a feat he’ll look to repeat in a couple of months’ time on the clay of Paris 2024.
Emilio Sanchez-Vicario and Sergio Casal, who gained silver in Seoul in 1988, and Alex Corretja and Albert Costa, who clinched bronze in Sidney 2000, are Spain’s solely different earlier medal-winners in males’s Olympic doubles.
The doubles competitors in Paris will include a 32-team draw. Croatians Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic are the occasion’s defending champions after they gained the gold medal at Tokyo 2020.
The tennis event will happen from Saturday 27 July to Sunday 4 August on the clay of Roland Garros. It will likely be the primary time the Olympic occasion has been performed on clay since Barcelona 1992.
Editor’s observe: This text was translated from ATPTour.com/es.
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