Alex Trelinski
THE crowd-pleasing Spanish duo of Rafa Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz are back on court this Wednesday in the Olympic Games quarter-finals at Roland Garros in Paris.
The ‘scratch’ pairing won their first two matches in front of enthusiastic tennis fans enjoying their dynamic play and sometimes unconventional tactics due to their lack of experience playing together.
They are unseeded and will face the American doubles duo of Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek who are seeded fourth in Paris.
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Ram and Krajicek are rated among the world’s top doubles players and have not played singles at the Olympics, unlike Nadal and Alcaraz.
The Americans don’t usually play together, but before the Paris Olympics, they teamed up to get to know each other better at the ATP 500 event in Hamburg- also on clay- and reached the semi-finals.
Today’s quarter-final has been scheduled for the evening session at Roland Garros, which means the match will not start before 7pm.
The scheduling means that Nadal and Alcaraz play again within a day after Tuesday’s win over the Dutch pair of Griekspoor and Koolhof.
“We played much better than the first day- more solid at all times but the problem in doubles is that everything gets complicated very quickly,” said Nadal.
As for his younger partner, Carlos Alcaraz, he said: “Little by little we are getting to know each other better off the court and that helps on the court.”
“We have the opportunity to live together and it is something beautiful with a family atmosphere and we try to have as much fun as possible,” he added.
Looking further ahead, one exciting possibility has opened up for the final, with Britain’s Andy Murray and Dan Evans in the other half of the draw, which could mean an extraordinary finish if the tennis gods look down favourably on the Spanish and British pairings.
