Tennis-Djokovic and Alcaraz move closer to golden showdown, 'Nadalcaraz' dream over

 

[August 01, 2024]  By Martyn Herman

PARIS (Reuters) -Serbia's Novak Djokovic and Spain's Carlos Alcaraz stayed on collision course for a golden showdown at the Paris Olympics as they surged through to the quarter-finals on Wednesday.

But Rafa Nadal's hopes of writing one last golden chapter in his Roland Garros love story ended in disappointment as he and Alcaraz lost in the quarter-finals of the doubles.

"I don't know what's going to happen in the future, but if that's the last time I enjoyed it," the 38-year-old said after a 6-2 6-4 loss to Americans Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek on the court where the king of clay won 14 French Open titles.

Djokovic, also in the last-chance saloon as far as his Olympic title hopes go, beat Germany's Dominic Koepfer 7-5 6-3 to reach the last eight at the Games for a record fourth time where he meets Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas.

The 21-year-old Alcaraz, seeded second, followed suit with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Russian Roman Safiullin to line up a quarter-final with American Tommy Paul.

Tokyo Olympics singles champion Alexander Zverev stayed on course for a repeat as the third seed beat Australia's Alexei Popyrin 7-5 6-3 to set up a quarter-final with Lorenzo Musetti.

Women's singles top seed Iga Swiatek became the first player from Poland to reach an Olympic semi-final as Danielle Collins retired trailing 4-1 in the third set of their scrap.

Anna Karolina Schmiedlova stunned Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-4 6-2 to become the first Slovak since Miloslav Mecir in 1988 to reach the Olympic singles semi-finals and China's Zheng Qinwen ended the stellar career of Germany's Angelique Kerber to emulate Li Na who reached the semi-finals of singles at the Beijing Games in 2008.

Kerber, who will retire after the Games, clung on grimly in stifling heat but Zheng eventually won 6-7(4) 6-4 7-6(6) to set up a semi-final with Swiatek.

Swiatek trounced Collins 6-1 in the first set, lost the second 6-2 and was hit painfully by a Collins shot in the decider before moving 4-1 ahead, at which point Collins pulled out.

Unseeded Croatian Donna Vekic concluded a marathon day as she served an ace on her fifth match point, having also saved one, to beat Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk at gone midnight.

Vekic, who lost the longest ever Wimbledon women's semi-final to Jasmine Paolini this month, needed two hours 59 minutes to win 6-4 2-6 7-6(8) and will play Schmiedlova -- meaning at least one unseeded player will win a women's singles medal.

For all his 24 Grand Slam titles and countless accolades, the Olympics has never been especially kind to the 37-year-old Djokovic and a bronze medal remains his only souvenir.

But he looks in the mood to fill the only unoccupied space in his bulging trophy cabinet and is yet to drop a set.

Paris 2024 Olympics - Tennis - Men's Doubles Quarterfinals - Roland-Garros Stadium, Paris, France - July 31, 2024. Carlos Alcaraz of Spain and Rafael Nadal of Spain react during their match against Austin Krajicek of United States and Rajeev Ram of United States. REUTERS/Phil Noble

After the emotions and hyperbole of Djokovic's clash with Nadal on Monday, the atmosphere on a muggy centre court was more sedate as he comfortably dispatched 30-year-old Koepfer.

Koepfer played two bad points at 5-6 to hand over the opener to Djokovic who needed no further help to notch his 16th career singles win at the Olympics -- the most by any player since tennis returned to the Games in 1988.

Standing in the way of Djokovic and a fourth Olympic singles semi-final is eighth seed Tsitsipas who beat Argentina's Sebastian Baez. The last time they met at Roland Garros was in the French Open final in 2021 when Tsitsipas was two sets ahead before succumbing in five.

"I don't expect anything less than a big fight and a tight match," Djokovic said of Thursday's clash. "The goal is to get to the finals and have a battle for that gold."

Games debutant Alcaraz, aiming to add the Olympic title to his French Open and Wimbledon crowns, was too good for Safiullin but his day ended in disappointment as he failed to spark alongside his idol Nadal.

"I think we've played great points, great rallies, great matches, but I'm a little bit disappointed right now. Obviously we wanted to keep going," Alcaraz said.

Norway's Casper Ruud will be eyeing a medal as the sixth seed beat Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina to set up a quarter-final with Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime who finally broke his losing run against Russia's Daniil Medvedev, beating the fourth seed 6-3 7-6(5) having lost their first seven meetings.

American Paul ended French hopes of a medal by beating Corentin Moutet 7-6(5) 6-3 but doubles partner Taylor Fritz could not join him in the last eight, going down 6-4 7-5 to Musetti.

(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris, Christian Radnedge, Pritha Sarkar and Toby Davis)

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