Enjoying every single moment, having the best experience possible,” Rafael Nadal said when asked whether these Olympics could be his final outing before retirement run. The Spaniard, highly determined to play at the Games for a third medal, kept skipping all other events to save a pack of energy. While he has decided to travel two roads, including both singles and doubles, “outrageous” scheduling issues have already started to bother him.
Nadal is currently unhappy with the scheduling at the Paris Olympics. The tennis star came forward to express his frustration after his doubles match with Carlos Alcaraz. “At 2:00 p.m. I’m playing? I don’t understand, it’s 10:00 p.m. at night now. It seems outrageous to me,” Nadal said. Being dicey about his next move, the Spaniard added, “I will have to talk to the team to see what is the best option to achieve results.”
Nadal, and Alcaraz defeated Argentine duo Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni in straight sets, 7-6 (4), 6-4. The Spanish pair showed great teamwork, especially in the second set, where they returned from a 3-0 deficit to win. This victory marked a memorable start for the newly formed duo. Although his doubles participation seems to be fueled up, the singles run seems to be in danger.
Scheduled to play against Hungarian Marton Fucsovics on Sunday, Rafa is concerned about the impact of the scheduling on his performance. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know if I am going to play tomorrow or not. I will talk to my people and make the smartest decision that I can to have the best chance of bringing a medal home, so let’s see,” he said.
The 38-year-old currently aims to make the best decision for his chances of winning a medal. While he has already raised concerns about the packed scheduling, fans don’t seem to find it relevant.
Fans lash out at Rafael Nadal’s concerning verdict with “so coddled” remarks
It barely took minutes for Nadal’s comment to make way on social media. Although the frustrated statement was recorded in his native language, social media pages uploaded translations, inviting a wider audience to drop their views. A fan used Rafa’s comment to target all the top-ranked competitors for not being flexible against scheduling.
“Top tennis players are so coddled you literally got your doubles match prioritized over other people’s singles, some of whom are signed up to all 3 events and will now have to double up pretty much every day,” he wrote. According to him, the ongoing event also has names who’d be traveling three different roads. While the ones doing that didn’t come up to raise flags, he marked Rafa’s statement as inappropriate.
Another fan, quick enough to remember how other players have tackled similar situations at ease, compared Rafa’s situation to that of Novak Djokovic. “Novak played a GS match and finished 3/4 am. His next match was scheduled during day. He brushed it aside. He didn’t even attribute that to all the mess up he had to face for next 3 weeks because of that,” he wrote. Tennis history has recorded multiple incidents (French Open 2024, 2022) where Nole concluded his matches at 1 AM and even later, which obviously is quite higher than that of Rafa.
Another fan, pointing at Djokovic’s recent Roland Garros campaign, wrote, “He would have killed himself if he had Djokovic’s this year Roland Garros scheduling but we all know that would never happened to him because of obvious reasons.” The Serb had to go through enough troubles as his recent showdown against Lorenzo Musetti concluded post-3:00 AM.
A fan believed that there is a high chance of Rafa’s withdrawal from singles. “Waiting for a Hola a todos tomorrow morning because the dude is complaining about a relatively decently scheduled match after playing doubles,” he said, pointing at a message about to come from the Spaniard.
Along with that, the comment pointed to even more intense situations lying just beside him. “His doubles partner literally played 2 matches today this absolutely isn’t anything outrageous pls,” he added, pointing at Alcaraz. A fan, disregarding Rafa for his consistent denials, wrote, “There is a constant with Rafa and people always choose to ignore it. He is really quick at finding excuses.”
With these and several other comments on a similar note, the fans made it clear that they were not at all ready to understand and support the concerns highlighted by Nadal. While his singles participation is still in doubt, his next move still remains to be witnessed.
