Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz won’t be able to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics through Davis Cup participation, but that is unlikely to stop them from competing.
International Tennis Federation rules state that to be eligible for the Olympics, a player must be part of his country’s Davis Cup team at least twice during a particular Olympic cycle. For next year’s Games, at least one Davis Cup appearance must come in either 2023 or 2024. Nadal, who missed basically this entire season, has not played Davis Cup since leading Spain to the title in 2019. Alcaraz was on the Spanish team once in 2022 but did not play this year.
With Spain having been granted a wild card straight to the Davis Cup Finals in 2024, there are no ties to play prior to next summer’s Olympics. That means neither Nadal nor Alcaraz can satisfy the requirement.
However, the two compatriots do have a path to Paris that is expected to be successful. They can appeal via the Spanish Tennis Federation with a letter to the ITF explaining the Davis Cup situation. Neither should have any difficulty. Nadal, of course, was injured this entire year. Alcaraz was not ranked high enough to be on Spain’s team at the beginning of this Olympic cycle. Both players are unable to control their 2024 participation since Spain was granted a finals wild card and therefore does not have to play a qualifying tie in February.
In addition to playing in the singles event at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Nadal and Alcaraz are rumored to be pairing up for doubles.
The upcoming Games will be hosted at Roland Garros July 27-August 4.
[yop_poll id=”712″]
could be Nadal’s last event
He’ll want to go out on a high.
What a load of nonsense, if they didn’t qualify they didn’t, are the others who played DC in order to qualify fools.
Rafa was injured so what, he wasn’t the only one who was injured and couldn’t play, it’s even worse with Alcaraz, he pulled out of DC match last minute after USO which costed Spain finals, Nole played it immediately after winning USO.
Why do you have the rules when you can bend them depending on who you are and what is your name?!
Let’em in!!!!!!!