PARIS – If there is anyone who has no doubts about Rafael Nadal’s condition in these Olympic Games, it is Carlos Alcaraz: “Rafa is at his best”.
This rainy Friday in Paris, both trained doubles under the retractable roof of the Philippe Chatrier. “The guy is fine, he’s at his best. He’s always fine, like always!” the 21-year-old tennis player assured CLAY.
Wearing a bandage on his right thigh due to adductor discomfort, Nadal trained normally. On Thursday he had cancelled his singles practice, and his coach Carlos Moya said that the 14-time Roland Garros champion’s presence in the singles competition was uncertain.
“I’m sure Rafa will be in tomorrow’s doubles because he trained well today. Let’s see how he feels. The doubles requires less intensity than the singles, in which you have to be very well prepared physically and in full condition,” reflected to the media David Ferrer, captain of the Spanish team.
Nadal is also not sure if he will attend the opening ceremony tonight in Paris. Alcaraz already knows that he will not board the boat that will take the Spanish delegation down the Seine River. Standing for too long can affect his performance the next day. This is usually the trend: those who compete the next day usually never parade.
Both will debut on Saturday in the doubles against the Argentine duo of Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni. It will be at 19.00 at the main stadium. Alcaraz will compete before that, at around 2:00 p.m., in singles against Lebanon’s Hadi Habib.
If there is something that is in abundance in the Spanish Olympic tennis team, it is complicity, good humor and camaraderie.
“Man, I pressed like without meaning to, I didn’t realize,” he explained during a dialogue with his team about a meme with sexual connotations that Alcaraz liked on Instagram, which generated more jokes on social media. The post was in reference to his stay in the Olympic Village and the attention the two-time Wimbledon champion has garnered, especially from female athletes.
Jokes abounded in the Spanish team. The mood is good, although uncertainty remains around Nadal.
