Carlos Alcaraz makes offer to Rafael Nadal as Wimbledon hero shares new ‘dream’

Carlos Alcaraz has admitted that he would love to team up with Rafael Nadal to represent Spain in the men’s doubles event at next year’s Olympic Games. The 20-year-old wrapped up his first Wimbledon title on Sunday with a historic victory over Novak Djokovic to rubber-stamp his status as one of the world’s leading players.

Alcaraz is seen by many as the natural heir to Nadal, who has been the pride of Spain over the last two decades but looks set to pass the torch on to his younger compatriot when he eventually retires from the sport. Nadal recently suggested that he will step back from tennis before the start of 2025, meaning that next year’s Olympics could be among his final tournament appearances.

It seems as though Alcaraz is eager to play doubles with Nadal while he still has the chance, with the two-time Grand Slam winner revealing to El Partidazo de Cope that he would be interested in partnering his idol in Paris next year. The tennis events will be staged at Roland Garros, where Nadal has enjoyed many of the best moments of his career at the French Open.

“It would be a dream to live the experience of playing doubles with your idol,” insisted Alcaraz, who expressed a similar view earlier this year when he said: “Let’s see how he’s doing and how he’s going, you know, in this year. Hopefully, he’s going great but for me, it could be a dream to play doubles with him.”

Alcaraz has never teamed up with Nadal to play doubles but the pair have faced each other in singles on three occasions, with the latter winning twice. They are seemingly on good terms away from the court, with Alcaraz revealing after his Wimbledon triumph on Sunday that Nadal had been in touch to wish him good luck in the final against Djokovic.

He explained: “He [Nadal] sent me a message. First he sent it to wish me luck for the final and I appreciate it. That someone like him, an idol of my childhood and who continues to be so, sends you strength and luck for the most important moment of your life is something to admire.”

Nadal has also waxed lyrical about Alcaraz when quizzed on what makes the newly-crowned Wimbledon champion so special, telling Marca in December: “When I say that he is special, I mean that he is very fast, that he hits very hard, that he has a great drive and a great backhand and that he has the ability to be a great tennis player.

“If we can analyse it this way, because Carlos is very special and he is a player who I think will mark an era. I also say with total humility, and this must not be lost sight of, that when [Alexander] Zverev, [Daniil] Medvedev or [Stefanos] Tsitsipas arrived, [Roger] Federer, [Novak] Djokovic and I were still at a very high level.

“We athletes also feed ourselves victories and for many years our rivals have been able to win very little and when you win, you improve. So these new generations have more options than other rivals had at the time because now, beyond Roger’s retirement, Novak and I are playing fewer and fewer tournaments.”

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