The dream team of Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz is rolling, as they just made it to the Olympics 2024 tennis doubles quarterfinals.
Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz scored a 6-4, 6-7(2), 10-2 win over Dutchmen Tallon Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof on Tuesday, and the updated Olympics 2024 odds have them as the prohibitive favourite to win the coveted gold medal.
Elsewhere in the women’s singles competition, the top two players in the WTA rankings have experienced contrasting fortunes in Paris.
Coco Gauff is going to leave on a whimper after her Olympic campaign has come to an abrupt end, while Iga Swiatek made her country proud with her latest achievement.
Just in case you missed it, fret not, as SBOTOP is here to recap the latest Olympics 2024 results.
Nadal and Alcaraz march to the quarter-finals
Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz gave the fans a show in their win over Tallon Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof, as the pair was pumped up and they were receiving raucous cheers from all corners of the Court Suzanne Lenglen arena.
The Spanish duo went to work by applying early pressure against the Dutchmen, and it paid off as Alcaraz gained the decisive break of the first by firing a powerful forehand to break Koolhof’s serve.
However, Griekspoor and Koolhof were determined not to go down without a fight. After all, Koolhof was a former doubles world no. 1.
The Dutchmen bounced back to take the second set as they tried to shush the crowd. It took them a while, but they dominated the second-set tiebreak, winning it 7-2.
But Nadal and Alcaraz were not to be denied, as they closed out the match in the deciding set. The Spaniards had their share of shining moments, as Nadal fired one curling forehand winner after another while Alcaraz was virtually unplayable at the net.
Together, they sealed the victory in two hours and 24 minutes in sweltering conditions.
With Nadal losing to Novak Djokovic in the singles competition on Monday, his best chance of winning his last Olympic gold medal is via doubles. On the other hand, Alcaraz is having one heck of an Olympic debut, as he is still alive both in singles and doubles.
Gauff in tears after early exit
Coco Gauff was not happy with how she lost 7-6(7), 6-2 in the third round against Donna Vekic on Tuesday night at Court Philippe Chatrier.
The reigning US Open champion felt she got a raw deal from the officials, so she demanded an introduction of video replays at Roland Garros moving forward because this is the only one of the four Grand Slams that doesn’t utilise technology in any form to aid the officials.
In the first set, Gauff lost her composure on break point when Vekic’s return landed near the baseline.
The line judge initially called Vekic’s shot out since Gauff didn’t attempt to keep the ball in play, but chair umpire Jaume Campistol said that Vekic’s shot was in, so they gave the point to the Croatian. The point was important since it gave Vekic a service break and a 4-2 advantage.
The 20-year-old cried as she pleaded her case, but to no avail.
Even before this decision, Gauff was already off to a poor start against Vekic. Simply put, Vekic was the better player that day, as she had 33 winners compared to just nine for Gauff.
With the victory, Donna Vekic became the first Croatian woman to make it to the Olympic singles quarter-finals since Iva Majoli in 1996. She will face either Marta Kostyuk or Maria Sakkari for a spot in the semis.
As for Gauff, she still has a chance to win Olympic gold via the women’s and mixed doubles.
Swiatek achieves history for Poland
Iga Swiatek is on track for Olympic gold, as she is through the quarter-finals of the ongoing Olympic women’s singles competition following her 6-3, 6-4 win over Wang Xiyu on Tuesday.
It looked like Swiatek had it easy against Wang if you look solely at the scoreline, but the Chinese international gave the current world no. 1 a huge run for her money.
Swiatek was cruising into the second game before Wang dug deep and threatened to send the match into the third set. But the four-time Roland Garros champion recovered just in time to secure the victory.
With the win, Swiatek extended her undefeated streak on clay courts to 22 matches in a row. She also became the first Polish tennis player to make it this far in the quadrennial meet.
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