The improbable, charismatic, and instantly legendary partnership of Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz in men’s doubles at the Paris Olympics has come to an end.
Don’t be sad it’s over—be glad it happened.
The dream team—pairing Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion and two-time gold-medal winner, with Alcaraz, already a four-time Grand Slam victor (though he’s barely half his partner’s age)—captivated tennis and pop culture fans globally, earning the nickname Nadalcaraz along the way.
Both hail from Spain and are extremely popular with international fans: Nadal for his dominance on clay, the surface these Games are played on (he’s such a hero in France that he was one of the torchbearers during the opening ceremony, an honor usually reserved for locals), and Alcaraz in part for his permanent smile. However, the duo fell to the American doubles specialists Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram in a rowdy quarterfinal spectacle. (The referee, multiple times, had to tell the crowd to settle down.)
They had some solid wins to reach this round, though, including over the Dutch contingency (which boasted the can-be-dangerous Tallon Griekspoor).
After clinching that match, Nadal told the press: “I’m having fun. It’s a special moment. [Carlos and I] are not going to play any more Olympics together, so we are trying to enjoy [this] as much as possible. At the same time, we are not doubles players. We are not used to playing doubles, so the only way to make that work well is to play with happiness.”
Alcaraz echoed the sentiment; he has long idolized the elder statesman. “[It’s] a dream come true for me,” he said. “Playing on the same side of the net with Rafa, learning from him, it’s unbelievable. I’m trying to enjoy every single second out there.”
Nadal, hampered in recent months (and even years) by a series of injuries, will likely not return to Roland-Garros (most famously the site of the French Open) as a professional tennis player.
In other tennis news, Americans Coco Gauff, Chris Eubanks, Jessica Pegula, Emma Navarro, Taylor Fritz, and Danielle Collins have all fallen in the singles, leaving Tommy Paul as the sole remaining US representative on that side of things. Notably, both Navarro and Collins—the latter of whom has been enjoying an epic final season on the tour ahead of an already announced retirement—had choice words for their opponents: Zheng Qinwen bested the former in the third round, and Iga Swiatek won against the latter during the quarters (on a medical default—Collins retired).
