Alcaraz and Nadal set to team up in doubles at Paris 2024
Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal, the reigning and 14-time Roland Garros champions, respectively, will team up in doubles for the Paris 2024 Olympic Tennis Event.
The pairing was confirmed by Spanish team captains David Ferrer and Anabel Medina Garrigues at a press conference to announce the players pre-selected for the upcoming Games on 27 July – 4 August.
Alcaraz and Nadal are set to be joined by Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Pablo Carreno Busta, world No. 32 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, and doubles world No. 2 Marcel Granollers in the Spanish team for the men's competition, with Sara Sorribes Tormo and Cristina Bucsa pre-selected for the women’s event.
The prospect of Nadal and Alcaraz playing together on a surface – and venue – in which they have both excelled in the singles format, is particularly mouthwatering.
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“We have a great team and we are going to play at Roland Garros, that court that Nadal and Alcaraz know so much, and we hope to give a joy to Spanish sport,” said Ferrer, a runner-up at the hands of Nadal at Roland Garros in 2013.
“For me it is a privilege to be part of the Spanish team and to have players of that category, many of whom I know from having competed with them,” he added.
Carreno Busta, like Nadal, is set to use a protected ranking to compete in Paris, having slipped outside the world’s top 1000 earlier this year after a lengthy spell on the sidelines due to an elbow injury.
He played his first match since October at Roland Garros earlier this month, falling to Mariano Navone in four sets, but has high hopes of returning to the kind of form that saw him beat Novak Djokovic for Olympic singles bronze in Tokyo three years ago.
“The Paris Olympic event was something super important for me when it came to maintaining that motivation and perseverance at work to try to recover,” he said. “There is still a month left and I am sure that I will be able to play enough games to get the rhythm I need.”
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A surprise omission from Spain's squad on Wednesday was former world No. 2 Paula Badosa, who has elected not to use a protected ranking to compete at the Games.
"She only has two tournaments left this year in which she can do so, and the Games don't give her points," explained Medina Garrigues. “This made her make a very difficult decision, because she was very excited to be in Paris.”
The ITF will announce the full entry list for the Paris 2024 Olympic Tennis Event on 4 July here, though nations may announce their intended teams in advance of that date.