- Rafael Nadal’s participation in the Paris Olympics is in doubt due to a thigh injury
- Nadal, 38, plans to represent Spain in both men’s doubles and singles.
- But he could choose to follow the example of Britain’s Andy Murray and withdraw from the singles event.
Rafael Nadal’s participation in this summer’s Paris Olympics is in doubt due to a thigh injury.
The 38-year-old, a 14-time champion at Roland Garros, where this summer’s events are being held, has been entered to represent Spain in both the men’s singles and doubles.
Nadal is scheduled to face Hungarian Marton Fucsovics in the first round of singles on Sunday, with the winner likely to face Novak Djokovic in the second round.
The day before, Nadal and reigning Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz will begin their doubles campaign against Argentines Máximo González and Andrés Molteni.
But Nadal did not train on Thursday, raising doubts about his possible participation.
Rafael Nadal hopes to represent Spain at this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris, France
Nadal (left) training with Carlos Alcaraz (right) on Wednesday, but Nadal did not train on Thursday
Spanish icon Nadal (right) was pictured alongside Germany’s Angelique Kerber (centre) and Britain’s Andy Murray (left) at the Olympic tennis draw ceremony on Thursday.
His coach, Carlos Moya, told the radio station Wave Zero Thursday: ‘I can’t say for sure that Nadal will play.
‘We want to give him 48 hours to see how he improves and how he recovers and well, if everything goes normally and everything goes well, then he will jump on the field on Saturday.’
‘He rested on Monday, he had just finished a tough week in Bastad, and on Tuesday we started again very slowly, very calmly, knowing that, well, there was fatigue.
‘Yesterday (Wednesday) was a very good day, both training singles in the morning and doubles in the afternoon, in the afternoon this small problem was already noticeable and, well, we decided that the best and most sensible thing was to rest, for him to do the treatment in the village, to rest and give him time to recover.’
If Nadal does take to the court with Alcaraz on Saturday, he could decide to withdraw from the singles event.
That would see him follow the path taken by compatriot and former world number one Andy Murray, who plans to team up with Dan Evans in the men’s doubles after retiring from singles.
British team Murray and Evans will face Japan’s Taro Daniel and Kei Nishikori in the first round.
Murray will represent Team GB exclusively in men’s doubles after retiring from singles.
Former world number one Murray (right) will partner Dan Evans (left) at the clay-court event.
Neal Skupski and Joe Salisbury will also represent Great Britain in the men’s doubles, beginning their quest for glory against the Czech duo of Tomas Machac and Adam Pavlasek.
Nadal and Murray are two-time Olympic gold medalists.
Murray won singles gold at London 2012 and then again in Rio four years later.
Nadal, meanwhile, was men’s singles champion in Beijing in 2008, before he and Marc Lopez won the men’s doubles in Rio.
