Carlos Alcaraz may be coming off back-to-back Grand Slam titles but he still has massive respect for Rafael Nadal ahead of the Paris Olympics, highlighting that he is the one who will have to listen to the other side.
Alcaraz, 21, has been on fire over the last two months after winning the French Open and Wimbledon to improve to four Slam titles. Now, Alcaraz’s next goal is to do well in his Olympic debut, where he is scheduled to play in the singles event and also the doubles event with Nadal.
Not much. He’s also doing his thing, we’re doing ours. We talk very little, but when we’re at the Games, we’ll talk about that doubles and, above all, how we’re going to do it,” Alcaraz told ABC Sports.
Alcaraz: I’m the rookie, I’ll listen to Nadal
For 38-year-old Nadal, this will be his fourth and final Olympic appearance. In the past, Nadal achieved great success on the Olympic stage, winning a singles gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics before also claiming a gold medal in the doubles competition with Marc Lopez at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
And although Nadal hasn’t won any titles since the 2022 French Open – mainly due to major injury issues – he still has a very rich Olympic resume and Alcaraz has nothing but a great level of respect and appreciation for that.
“I’m not nervous right now. When the time comes, I will be. And yes, obviously, he’s already experienced this, he already knows what it’s like to play in the Olympics, to win a gold in both singles and doubles. I’m new, I’m the rookie here, so I have to keep my mouth shut and just listen to him,” Alcaraz noted.
Last week, Alcaraz took some time to rest after winning Wimbledon. On the other side, Nadal finished as runner-up in Bastad while he also reached the Bastad doubles semifinal with Casper Ruud before they gave a walkover to Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos because the Spaniard wanted to recover for the singles final.
