Olympic Games Paris 2024

Rafael Nadal says he is likely to play at Roland Garros despite quick Rome exit to Hubert Hurkacz

By Rory Jiwani, Joel Barnett and Marta Martín
3 min|
Nadal applauds to the Rome crowd while carrying his bags as leaves the court

Picture by REUTERS/Claudia Greco

Tennis great Rafael Nadal says that he will probably attempt to win a 15th French Open title at Roland Garros after crashing out of his last Italian Open.

The Spaniard was well beaten in the second round in Rome on Saturday (11 May), going down 6-1, 6-3 to seventh seed Hubert Hurkacz in just over an hour and a half.

After his defeat, Nadal told reporters, "The decision is not clear in my head right now. But if I had to say what my feeling is, it's that I will be at Roland Garros and I will give my best. Even though it's a difficult time for me, I would say frustrating, right now I feel closer to trying."

Having looked sluggish at times against the big-serving Pole, he added, "Physically I still have some problems, but not enough to say that I will not play in the most important tournament of my career.

"Let's see what happens, how I feel mentally. And if I feel ready, I want be there and fight as I have done in the last 15 years, even if now it seems impossible."

The 37-year-old 'King of Clay' has now failed to reach the quarter-finals in three tournaments this year on his favourite surface. Nadal went out in the last 32 in Barcelona to Alex de Minaur before falling in the Madrid round of 16 to Jiri Lehecka.

Rafael Nadal casts doubt on Olympic doubles pairing with Carlos Alcaraz

Last week, Carlos Alcaraz floated the idea of playing doubles with his fellow Spaniard at Paris 2024.

Nadal, who won the singles title at Beijing 2008 and men's doubles gold with Marc Lopez at Rio 2016, looks almost certain to retire at the end of this season. And he questioned whether teaming up with the two-time Grand Slam winner at a fourth Games would be possible.

He said, “It looks difficult. I don’t know yet. I mean, he got injured in Madrid. I was not in good enough physical condition to play before, and it looks difficult because there are not a lot of tournaments that we can play in together before the Olympics."

While Nadal did not rule it out, he said there was no chance of he and Alcaraz playing together at the French Open which starts later this month.

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