Rafael Nadal has teased the possibility of teaming up with compatriot Carlos Alcaraz in doubles at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

22-time Grand Slam champion Nadal has experienced plenty of Olympic success in the past, winning gold in singles at the 2008 Games in Beijing, defeating Fernando Gonzalez in straight sets, 6–3, 7–6(7–2), 6–3. 

Eight years later, Nadal won gold in men's doubles with Marc Lopez. Together, the Spanish duo emerged victorious against Romanian pair Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau. Now, it looks as though Nadal has set his sights on another Olympic medal, this time with young tennis star Alcaraz.

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Nadal's last Olympic Games

37-year-old Nadal has been absent from the sport for most of this season. He was eliminated from the Australian Open in the second round by Mackenzie McDonald before taking some time away to recover from injuries.

He then announced that he would be undergoing surgery, meaning that he would not return to the ATP Tour until 2024, which he has suggested could be his last season. However, he has made it clear that he would love to participate in the Olympics one more time. 

"For the Games, on a personal level, I would like to play them one more time. Everyone knows that I have always been a lover of the Games. I have lived incredible moments of co-existence, of seeing what sport is in its pure essence," he said in an interview with AS. 

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A Nadal-Alcaraz Olympic doubles?

Nadal also expressed his hopes to compete alongside two-time Grand Slam champion Alcaraz for the doubles title but added that they would need to discuss it first.

"Regarding the fact of playing doubles with Carlos, I have not had the slightest conversation with him in that regard. But I would also like [it] and it would be a good motivation, another incentive for me to be able to close my Olympic cycle playing with Carlos, with everything he is achieving, with the young people and with the great future he has ahead of him," Nadal continued.

José Morgado

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Nadal insists that 2024 may not be the last year of his career after all. And wants to play Olympics doubles with Alcaraz.

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