B Former world number one Rafael Nadal; the current number two of the ATP, Carlos Alcaraz; the last Spanish Olympic tennis medalist, Pablo Carreño; as well as Alejandro Davidovich (32 in the ATP) and the number 1 in the doubles ranking, Marcel Granollers, are the five players preselected to represent Spain at the Paris Olympic Games, as announced this Wednesday by the Spanish coach, David Ferrer, in the RCT Barcelona-1899.
The first four will compete in the individual draw and Granollers will only compete in the doubles category, in which Nadal and Alcaraz will also form one of the two couples that will represent Spain in the tournament.
“Rafa and Carlos are going to be playing together in Paris if nothing prevents it, and although I have a clear idea of who will form the second pair, I am still not one hundred percent sure,” declared Ferrer, who has not yet fully decided who will accompany to Granollers, number one in the world ranking of the specialty together with his usual partner on the circuit, the Argentine Horacio Zeballos.
The Royal Spanish Tennis Federation (RFET) will announce the final list for Paris 2024 on July 4, coinciding with the Wimbledon tournament. And, if there are no last-minute unforeseen events, Nadal, at 38 years old and with a protected ranking (number 9 in the ATP), will compete in his fourth Olympic Games.
And the Spaniard was already in Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, where he won the gold medal in singles, and Rio de Janeiro 2016, when he won another gold, this time in the doubles category with Marc López. In Paris, he will return to the stage where he has made history by winning Roland Garros 14 times.
Also with a protected ranking (number 18) Pablo Carreño will be in the French capital, who is now fully recovered from the elbow injury that he has suffered for a year and a half and that once forced him to undergo surgery.
Carreño, present at the event held at the RCT Barcelona-1899, explained that Tokyo 2020, where he won the bronze medal after defeating the number 1 at that time, the Serbian Novak Djokovic, “is one of those memories that will never be forgotten.” “.
The man from Gijón wants to relive those sensations in an Olympic tournament and has worked hard to be able to compete in other Games, which he will arrive at when he just turned 33 years old.
“The Paris event has been super important to keep me motivated and constant in my recovery. And between now and the Olympics I think I will be able to play enough games to get into the rhythm I need and definitively overcome the injury,” he said.
