Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz will team up for the first time as they have been announced to play doubles together at the upcoming 2024 Paris Olympics.
The announcement was made by Spain’s captains, David Ferrer and Anabel Medina. Apart from the Nadal-Alcaraz team, Marcel Granollers might team up with Pablo Carreno Busta or Alejandro Davidovich Fokina as the second Spanish team in men’s doubles.
Sara Sorribes Tormo and Cristina Busca will team up in the women’s doubles and the duo will be in action in the singles too. Similarly, both Nadal and Alcaraz will play in the men’s singles too.
The announcement of the pairings comes three days after Alcaraz won the French Open at Roland Garros for the first time. It was also his third Grand Slam title.
Nadal has won two Olympic medals – gold medals in singles (2008 Olympics) and doubles
(2016 Olympics, partnering Marc Lopez) – alongside his 22 Grand Slam titles.
However, both Nadal and Alcaraz will enter the field without any preparation as Alcaraz, who is fresh from winning the Roland Garros title, has decided not to compete in an ATP event before the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Nadal is using his protected ranking of World No. 9 for the men’s singles at the 2024 Paris Olympics. Meanwhile, Carreno Busta is also using his protected ranking to compete in the singles while Alcaraz and Fokina made the cut based on their current standings.
In the women’s category, Badosa, former World No. 2, has decided to not use her protected ranking for tfederation for the Wimbledon and the US Open Grand Slams.he Olympics. The tennis player will use the two protected ranking options given by the federation for the Wimbledon and the US Open Grand Slams.
Ferrer, while announcing the teams, said the plan is to win more than one medal and he hoped he could win his first medal as a captain of the Spanish team. “I couldn’t win a medal as a player, I hope to do so as captain. One pair is Nadal and Alcaraz and the second is yet to be decided. We are confident that there may be more than one medal,” he said.