Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray, two of the most accomplished tennis players of their generation, may be preparing to bid farewell to the sport at the upcoming Paris Olympics.
Rafa Nadal (right) offered Andy Murray the use of a boat with the Briton playing at his tennis academy
During the initial discourse regarding the potential conclusion of his professional tennis career in 2024, Rafael Nadal explicitly mentioned the Paris Olympics as one of the significant competitions he aspired to participate in.
If, indeed, this is his last hurrah, and if, indeed, he does
make it to the Summer Games a little more than a year after hip surgery —
neither of which is an absolute certainty — it would be fitting that the site
of the French Open is also the site of this goodbye.
No event, at least in this sport, defines an athlete’s
legacy the way the clay-court Grand Slam tournament does for Nadal. And the
opposite is true, too, which is why there is a statue of the 38-year-old
Spaniard at Roland Garros, the site of a record 14 of his 22 major trophies and
where the Olympic tennis matches begin on July 27.
Rafael Nadal skipped Wimbledon before the Olympics
Nadal skipped Wimbledon in order to avoid going from clay to
grass and back to clay at the Paris Games, where he has been planning to team
in doubles with Carlos Alcaraz, the 21-year-old coming off back-to-back major
titles at Roland Garros and the All England Club.
And even though the idea that Nadal could add to his gold
medals — in singles at Beijing in 2008, and in doubles with Marc López at Rio
de Janeiro in 2016 — seems far-fetched, just the sight of him back in Paris
will mean a lot to him and his fans.
“My body has been a jungle for two years. You don’t know
what to expect,” said Nadal, who has been able to play only 16 matches since
the start of last year, going 8-8, including a first-round loss at the French
Open this May. “I wake up one day and I (felt like I had) a snake biting me.
Another day, a tiger.”
The Paris Games will mark Andy Murray’s adieu
Another popular, and successful, figure in men’s tennis
whose body has let him down lately, Andy Murray of Britain, says this Olympics
will mark his adieu.
The 37-year-old Murray, a three-time Slam champion, is the
only athlete with two singles golds in the sport — from London in 2012 and Rio
four years later. After having hip replacement surgery in 2019, and various
other injuries more recently, he withdrew from singles at Wimbledon because he
needed a procedure to remove a cyst from his spine last month.
“It’s great that they’ll be at the Olympics one last time.
Any chance to see those guys on a court again should be celebrated,” U.S. coach
Bob Bryan said. “They’re both working through tough times with injuries, but
they’re showing that resilience and that will to fight and be on the court.”
Novak Djokovic, Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff seek Olympic
gold
While Murray and Nadal both own golds, the best of the best
in tennis do not always leave an Olympics with the top prizes.
Novak Djokovic of Serbia, for example, will be trying to
fill that one gap on his otherwise-impeccable resume, which includes 24 Grand
Slam trophies and more weeks at No. 1 in the rankings than anyone.
Also eyeing a first gold will be such stars of the sport as
Iga Swiatek of Poland, who has won the French Open four of the past five years,
and Coco Gauff of the United States, the reigning U.S. Open champion and
runner-up to Swiatek at Roland Garros in 2022.
She missed out on the Tokyo Olympics three years ago because
she tested positive for COVID-19 right before she was supposed to travel to
Japan.
“I’ve been trying to put myself in the mindset of just
enjoying the experiences,” Gauff said, “because you’re only going to have your
first Olympics once.”
Not every top tennis player will be at the Summer Games
As a sport with plenty of prizes on offer nearly every week,
and four Grand Slam events per year, tennis does not place the same emphasis on
the Olympics as sports such as athletics, gymnastics and swimming do. So some
of the most accomplished and high-ranked athletes will be skipping Paris.
That includes Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, a two-time
Australian Open champion who is No. 3 in the world, two-time Wimbledon
runner-up Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, and Americans such as Ben Shelton and Frances
Tiafoe, who were semifinalists in recent years at the U.S. Open. The year’s
last Slam starts less than a month after the Olympics end.
“You’ve got to look big picture. U.S. Open is right there. It’s going to be super hot this summer. I just kind of want to be there, practicing in that. And I care way more about the Open and being as prepared for the Open as possible,” Tiafoe said. “That was kind of it.” AP