Paris 2024 Olympics: ‘It would be a dream’, Alcaraz still hopes to play Nadal in doubles

Carlos Alcaraz-Rafael Nadal duet at the Paris Games is still possible! Even though the man who has won 22 Grand Slam titles is facing physical challenges this season to return to the top level, his young cadet still believes he can be there at his side in Paris this summer.

“Of course I still hope to play doubles with him at the Olympics! It would be a dream. There are four months left, and anything can happen…” said the world number three on the eve of the start of the Masters 1000 in Monte Carlo, due to which the still injured Nadal withdrew.

Federer-Wawrinka model.

The absence of the king of the land, who turns 38 on June 3, does not change anything in the daily life of Carlos Alcaraz, who emphasizes that he “barely met” him on the track. “We haven’t played many tournaments together. Therefore, his absence does not change much for me. But as a tennis fan, I regret that Rafa is not playing in Monte Carlo,” Alcaraz said.

“Rafa”, as he calls him, has barely played since his 14th Roland Garros coronation in 2022 (making him the record for most Grand Slam titles at 22, since Novak Djokovic lifted him to 24), and its completion seems near. and closer. Unless he ends his career with apotheosis at the Olympic Games, on the Parisian soil that smiled at him so much. For reference, Nadal has already become an Olympic champion twice: in 2008 in Beijing in singles and in doubles (with Mark Lopez) in Rio in 2016.

Alcaraz and Nadal, potentially selected by the Spanish delegation, could form a dream duo, like Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka before them, to compete for gold at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.