‘It will be explosive’ – Ex-pro wants Nadal teaming up with Alcaraz at Olympics

Former Spanish tennis player Alex Corretja hopes to see Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz playing together at the Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

Speaking to Eurosport, the 1998 and 2001 Roland Garros runner-up said both players could make a dominant force if paired on a tennis court.

“Both the facts that the Olympics being played at Roland Garros and that Rafa will enter the games thinking it is his last shot to add a medal for the country makes an important moment,” said Corretja, the 2000 Indian Wells champion, to Eurosport.

“If you add to the mix, that he could play with [Carlos] Alcaraz in doubles, that becomes explosive, that would be something attractive, that would really be a very unusual combination, but I think it would work out very well because the two are 'winners.'

“Although they do not know each other so well because they have coincided little in the circuit, I am convinced that the chemistry would be brutal.”

Nadal injury bugbear saw the 22-time Grand Slam champion miss the bulk of the 2023 season until his long-awaited return in Brisbane was ended by Jordan Thompson in the quarter-finals after the legendary Spaniard defeated Dominic Thiem and Jason Kubler in the earlier rounds.

Nadal was expected to return to Indian Wells against Milos Raonic but withdrew on the eve of the Masters 1000 event, days after facing Alcaraz in an exhibition match dubbed the “Netflix Slam” in Las Vegas.

The tennis great is also not competing at the Miami Open, with observers expecting the Spaniard’s return at the Monte Carlo Masters in April. Nadal’s recent social media posts suggest he is being put through his paces and a return at the start of the clay season is imminent.

With Novak Djokovic absent and Jannik Sinner’s fitness still being questioned, the Spanish sensation is favourite to claim a second Masters 1000 event in Miami. Danil Medvedev is the tournament’s defending champion, having won the event last year in a straight sets victory over Sinner.