By Leobert Julian A. de la Peña
The Paris Olympics journey of Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz in the men’s lawn tennis doubles event was already put to an end after the star tandem lost against Austin Krajicek and Rajeev Ram of USA in the quarterfinal round on August 1, 2024.
Nadal and Alcaraz got overpowered by the more experienced doubles pairing and fell in a sweep- 6.2, 6.4, held at the famous Philippe Chatrier clay tennis court in Paris.
Despite a huge crowd advantage entering the quarterfinal duel as almost all of the fans came to see the Nadal-Alcaraz pair, Krajicek and Ram had other plans and spoiled team Spain’s dream of an Olympic doubles gold medal.
It was a flawless display of tennis for the Americans as they always kept Spain guessing with their offensive combination plays during their service possessions.
In a span of two game sets, Krajicek and Ram played the baseline approach, calculating Nadal and Alcaraz’s movements while switching to a more aggressive net attack when everything was settled.
The Spanish duo tried to counter with Alcaraz manning the net but the clever Americans forced Nadal to come up the no man’s land that neutralized their groundstroke advantage.
Aside from the in-game adjustments, the Americans also figured out team Spain’s serving pattern and immediately scored a break in the first set that helped them capture the momentum of the game.
In the second set, Nadal and Alcaraz started to connect with their down-the-line power shots and turned the match into an interesting back-and-forth exchange.
However, just like the previous set, the Americans scored a much-needed service break that halted Spain’s surge to bag the quarterfinal win and advance to the semifinal round.
