The Spanish tennis couple formed by Rafa Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz -also known as ‘Nadalcaraz’- made his debut with a victory this Saturday in the Olympic doubles tournament in Paris 2024, a double debut for Alcaraz who also won in the morning session in the singles draw, just as the Serbian Novak Djokovic advanced on the path of the Balearic.
It had to be seen to be believed and it finally became a reality at the Philippe Chatrier. A month and a half after winning Roland Garros, Alcaraz returned to the Parisian central alongside the 14-time French Open champion, Nadal, who, in case there was any doubt, looked as good on the court as he did at the Opening Ceremony the night before.
The rain disrupted the Olympic tennis programme, which did not allow a single match outside the central court and the Suzanne Lenglen, where Alcaraz passed over the Lebanese Hady Habibworld number 275, 6-3 and 6-1 in the second round of the day.
The main event was in the afternoon, in a doubles match that will go down in the history of Spanish sport and tennis just by stepping onto the court, and even more so now that they are already in the round of 16 after beating the Argentines 7-6(4) and 6-4. Maximo Gonzalez and Andres MoltenWith hardly any experience in this format and the nerves of the start, Alcaraz started making more mistakes, but Nadal pulled him along in the roofed and flag-filled Philippe Chatrier.
As he had warned, despite suffering some physical discomfort on Wednesday, the player from Manacor showed greater inspiration in the Spanish jersey and delivered good shots from the start. The Argentines, with five titles last year out of the eight in their list of achievements, started by breaking the player from Murcia, but quickly found themselves behind (1-2) with Nadal giving it his all at the net.
Alcaraz reacted in time to help the Balearic player in his slump and the break went around both sides of the court until it came to a tie-break. There, with everything very tight, the Murcian pulled off a masterful lob and the Balearic player, a winning return, to give a Spanish colour to the first set. The Argentines, sixth seeded, reacted.
The South American duo took a step forward, literally with their play at the net, and They achieved an intimidating 0-3 in the second act. However, it was only a break down and the Spaniards woke up from their nap by showing their quality, even though they had never shared it on the court until today. The Spanish duo made it 3-3 and came close to another break, which came with a definitive 5-4.
Source: www.vozpopuli.com
