Rafael Nadal has been selected to the Spanish tennis team for the Paris Olympics and will partner Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s doubles event.
Nadal, whose form in the past two years has been limited by a number of injuries, said the Olympics were his focus and that he could skip the Wimbledon tournament to prepare.
“My main goal now is to play in the Olympics,” Rafael Nadal said after losing in the first round of the French Open on May 27. “It’s going to happen here. So I have to prepare myself the right way to try to get here healthy and ready, and then we’ll see.”
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Nadal and Alcaraz will play in the men’s singles and doubles events at the Olympics. The tennis competition will be held at Roland Garros, where Nadal is a 14-time Grand Slam champion and Alcaraz just won the French Open on Sunday (9/6).
“One pairing, which I think everyone knows and hopes for, is Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal, and the second pairing is still undecided. It’s not 100% confirmed,” national team coach David Ferrer told reporters.
Carlos Alcaraz, who will make his Olympic debut, has set winning an Olympic medal for Spain as one of the main targets of his career. He said after winning at Roland Garros that this year he would prefer a gold medal at the Paris Olympics to defending his Wimbledon title.
“The Olympics are held every four years and this is a special tournament where you not only play for yourself, but also for your country, representing every Spanish tennis player,” said Carlos Alcaraz, the world number two. “I think this year I will choose Olympic gold.”
Rafael Nadal has a gold medal in singles from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and gold in doubles in 2016, when he played alongside Marc Lopez.
Spain also selected Pablo Carreno Busta, Alejandro Davidovich and Marcel Granollers (doubles) for the men’s competition.
Captain Anabel Medina selected the No. 55 Sara Sorribes Tormo and no. 67 Cristina Bucsa – the top-ranked Spaniard – for the women’s team, while Paula Badosa decided not to compete as she still had two matches to play using her protected ranking.
