June 12 (UPI) — Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal will team up for the doubles tennis competition at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris, the Royal Spanish Tennis Federation announced Wednesday.
Alcaraz, the No. 2 player in the world, will compete on the same clay courts that he competed on last week, when he won his first French Open singles title. He also will make his Olympic debut at Paris 2024. Nadal is widely known as the “King of Clay” because of his record 14 singles titles at Roland Garros.
Alcaraz has frequently referred to Nadal as his “idol.”
No. 876 Pablo Carreno Busta and No. 32 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina are among other players who will represent Spain. Spaniard Marcel Granollers, the No. 2 doubles player, also was chosen to compete.
No. 55 Sara Sorribes Tormo and No. 67 Cristina Bucsa were chosen to compete in the women’s tournament.
Nadal, ranked No. 264, withdrew from the 2024 Australian Open in January because of a hip injury. He returned to the court in April. He said after his French Open loss that his “main goal” is to play in the Olympics.
“That’s going to be here [in Paris],” Nadal said. “So I need to prepare myself the proper way to try to arrive here healthy and well prepared, and then let’s see.”
Nadal won gold in singles at the 2008 Summer Games. He teamed up with Marc Lopez to win gold in doubles at the 2016 Summer Games.
The 2024 Summer Games tennis tournament will be held from July 27 to Aug. 4 at Roland Garros.
Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafoe, Sebastian Korda and Rajeev Ram (doubles) are among the men’s qualified to compete for Team USA at the Summer Games. Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Danielle Collins, Madison Keys and Nicole Melichar-Martinez (doubles) are the women’s players who qualified.
