'Wonderfully entertaining' Nadal & Alcaraz reach quarters
Watch the best shots from Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal’s “wonderfully entertaining” straight-set win over the Netherlands’ Tallon Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof at the Paris Olympics.
Watch the best shots from Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal’s “wonderfully entertaining” straight-set win over the Netherlands’ Tallon Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof at the Paris Olympics.
Carlos Alcaraz and Rafael Nadal are still alive at the Paris Olympics! The Spaniards fought hard and produced trademark moments of magic on Tuesday to earn a thrilling 6-4, 6-7(2), 10-2 win against Dutchmen Tallon Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof and reach the quarter-finals.
Nadal was in relaxed mood ahead of the clash, with the 38-year-old cuddling his son in the warmup area before the match. The 92-time tour-level titlist then took to court alongside a pumped-up Alcaraz, with the pair receiving raucous cheers from all corners of the stadium.
Dressed in Spanish red shirts and white shorts, Alcaraz and Nadal applied early pressure and gained the decisive break of a high-quality first set when Alcaraz blasted a bullet forehand crosscourt to break Koolhof’s serve. Both let out a roar, bounced to their chairs and took in the support from the crowd, with Spanish flags spread around Court Suzanne Lenglen.
[ATP APP]Alcaraz and Nadal fist-pumped their way through the match, while the crowd regularly leapt to their feet to cheer Nadal’s banana-curling forehand winners and Alcaraz’s lightning-fast hands at the net. In hot Parisian conditions, the Spaniards caught fire in the Match Tie-break. Under pressure, Nadal lifted his level and imposed himself on Griekspoor and Koolhof, striking with intensity on return and finding acute angles to help drive him and Alcaraz to victory.
Nadal is a two-time gold medalist (2008 Beijing singles, 2016 Rio doubles w/ Marc Lopez) and played the role of mentor throughout the clash in Paris. He offered frequent words of encouragement to the 21-year-old Alcaraz, who improved throughout and showed why he is a four-time major champion with a number of explosive winners off the forehand wing and effective moves to the net.
After they sealed victory in two hours and 24 minutes, fans chanted ‘Rafa!” and Spanish captain David Ferrer raised his arms to the sky in delight. Nadal’s sole focus is on the doubles after he lost in the singles to Novak Djokovic on Monday and he let out a roar and a beaming smile after clinching the win with Alcaraz. Alcaraz, who defeated Griekspoor in the singles on Monday, is making his Olympic debut and was ecstatic after the pair earned its second win of the week.
Alcaraz and Nadal, who saved all three break points they faced, embraced after the win and then signed balls for the fans courtside.
The Spaniards will next play Americans Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram in the quarter-finals. The fourth seeds beat Brazilians Thiago Monteiro and Thiago Seyboth Wild 6-4, 7-6(3).
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Watch Coco Gauff’s heated argument with officials after the umpire called Donna Vekic’s shot in, despite a line judge calling it out, resulting in the American losing a key point as she is knocked out of the women’s singles at Paris 2024.
Reigning Olympic gold medalist Alexander Zverev continued his quest at this year’s Paris Olympics on Tuesday when he moved past Czech Tomas Machac 6-3, 7-5 to reach the third round.
In hot conditions on Court Philippe Chatrier, the German won 88 per cent (14/16) of his first-serve points in the first set and then rallied from a break down in the second set to advance after one hour and 35 minutes.
Zverev, who struck 24 winners, won the gold medal in singles at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, beating Novak Djokovic en route. The No. 4 player in the PIF ATP Rankings will next face Alexei Popyrin after the Australian beat Swiss Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 7-5.
[ATP APP]In other action, American Taylor Fritz moved past Briton Jack Draper 6-7(3), 6-3, 6-2 to reach the third round. The seventh seed, who fired 16 aces and saved all nine break points he faced, is making his Olympics debut.
Fritz will next face Lorenzo Musetti after the Italian beat Argentine Mariano Navone 7-6(2), 6-3. Musetti arrived in Paris in good form, having advanced to his first major semi-final at Wimbledon and the title match at the ATP 250 clay-court event in Umag.
Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime wasted little time advancing, defeating German Maximilian Marterer 6-0, 6-1 in 64 minutes. Auger-Aliassime will next face Daniil Medvedev or Austrian Sebastian Ofner.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]British men’s number one Jack Draper fades in the sweltering Paris heat as the nation’s interest in the Olympics singles ends.
James and the Hay Festival audience try to conquer ageing, guided by a panel of experts.
Emma Raducanu made a winning return to action at the Washington Open despite suffering from jet-lag.
Finland’s Emil Ruusuvuori had to dig deep to secure his first hard-court win since February on the opening day of the Mubadala Citi DC Open Monday, saving two match points in the second set before claiming a near-three-hour marathon win over Borna Coric in steamy conditions in Washington, D.C.
The 25-year-old, No. 71 in the PIF ATP Rankings, saved two match points in the second-set tie-break and continued on to claim a 6-7(4), 7-6(8), 6-4 victory in two hours and 58 minutes to capture his first hard-court win since reaching the Doha quarter-finals in February.
[ATP APP]Coric dropped 21 aces according to Infosys ATP Stats but conceded the lone break of the match in the fifth game of the third set. Ruusuvuori fended off all five break points he faced to level his Lexus ATP Head2Head with the Croatian at 1-1
A finalist in Hong Kong in the opening week of the season, Ruusuvuori improved to 16-12 on the season and next plays fast-rising Frenchman Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, who is making his first appearance since his stunning run from qualifying to the Wimbledon fourth round.
This forehand rocket 🚀😮💨@EmilRuusuvuori | @mubadalacitidc | #MubadalaCitiDCOpen pic.twitter.com/l71vgrukOY
— ATP Tour (@atptour) July 29, 2024
[NEWSLETTER FORM]
Novak Djokovic has withdrawn from the National Bank Open Presented by Rogers in Montreal, the tournament announced on Monday.
The Serbian owns a 25-7 record this season following his second-round victory on Monday against Rafael Nadal in the Paris Olympics. The 37-year-old, a four-time ATP Masters 1000 Canada champion, is pursuing his first title of the season.
[ATP APP]Djokovic enjoyed his best result of the season at Wimbledon, where he made the final before losing to Carlos Alcaraz. The 98-time tour-level titlist is currently in sixth place in the PIF ATP Live Race To Turin.
The seven-time Nitto ATP Finals champion is trying to qualify for the season finale for the 17th time. Since 2007, the only year in which he missed out was 2017. The 2024 year-end championships will be held in Turin from 10-17 November.
[NEWSLETTER FORM]Norway made history at the 2022 Beijing Olympics with a record-breaking 16 gold medals, the most by a country in a single Winter Games. Fast forward two years and one of the athletes Norway will have its eyes on at the Summer Games in Paris is the country’s highest-ranked tennis player, Casper Ruud.
The 25-year-old, who has won 11 ATP Tour titles and made three major finals, looks to become the first Norwegian male to earn a medal in tennis. Ahead of Ruud’s campaign, the No. 9 in the PIF ATP Rankings sat down with ATPTour.com to discuss the Olympic sports he enjoys watching and which Norwegian athletes have inspired him.
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What Olympic sport do you think you would be good at?
I think I’m just going to stick with my favourite sport outside tennis, which is golf. I love golf. That’s my favorite sport outside of tennis. I love playing, I love watching it. Easy for me to go with that one.
For which sports do you think you would not be well suited?
Probably gymnastics or swimming or these things that require an incredible amount of body control.
Which Norwegian Olympians have you looked up to?
Lately we’ve had a few gold medals in the Summer Olympics as well, with Jakob Ingebrigtsen winning the 1500 metres distance running gold medal in Tokyo. Karsten Warholm set a new world record at the 400 meter hurdle in Tokyo and won gold there so the last Summer Olympics was really good for Norway, so hopefully we can keep it up this year as well.
Is there an Olympic athlete from another country you have looked up to?
I think the highlight always for me was watching the 100 meter sprint, Usain Bolt was the fastest man alive, fastest man on the planet is always one of the highlights, so I guess watching him win gold and doing his ‘Arrow’ signature pointing celebration. I can’t even remember if it was before or after, but that was always fun to watch.
What are you most looking forward to about the Olympic Village?
I think it will be fun. Tennis in a way is a bit of a lonely sport at times, because you travel around by yourself. Of course you have your team and everything, but sometimes you’re by yourself stuck in a hotel room for most nights, during the year. So being in the Olympic Village together with other athletes, maybe sharing experiences or talking about sports in general is going to be hopefully a fun experience.
What is your country best known for in the Olympics?
I would say the Winter Olympics. We typically end up doing pretty good on the statistics in the Winter Olympics. Most of the time we’re able to win most golds because the biathlon and the cross country skiers and alpine downhill skiers, they kind of do rack up gold medal after gold medals, so I would say the Winter Olympics is more of Norway’s thing, but hopefully can be a surprise this year.