Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic Boldly Take on Olympics Organizers After Round 1 Wins

The 2024 Paris Olympics organizers are under scrutiny as questions are being raised about the scheduling of draws by various athletes. Legends like Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic were not happy with how their matches had been scheduled by the organizers and called them out.

The 14-time French Open champion was visibly angry as he was scheduled to play two matches over a short period. While he competed against Argentina’s Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni along with his men’s doubles partner Carlos Alcaraz at 10 pm local time on Saturday, his first-round men’s singles clash has also been scheduled for 2 pm local time on Sunday.

This doesn’t leave enough time for the Spaniard to prepare for the singles game. At the same time, given his fitness and health concerns, it is going to be difficult for the ‘King of Clay’ to appear in back-to-back matches. When asked about the same during a conversation with Carrusel Deportivo, Rafa burst out and termed the schedule ‘outrageous’.

“Do I play at 2:00 p.m.? I don’t understand the schedule, it seems outrageous to me when I’m playing tomorrow at two o’clock. I don’t know, I’ll have to go back to the village and talk to the team, I’ll make the decision that I think is most appropriate to have a chance of getting results for Spain,” he said.

The Spanish star also said that his participation in the singles category is not confirmed now as he will discuss it with his team and then make a decision if he should play the second game.

Novak Djokovic also raised concerns regarding his first-round men’s singles draw against Matthew Ebden, who is a doubles expert.

Djokovic Empathises With Ebden

Djokovic questioned why the organizers put the doubles expert in the singles draw, when plenty of players could have been drawn up against him. Ebden, who has not participated in the singles event for over 2 years, lost to Djokovic in straight sets and could only manage to win 1 game in the entire match.

Empathizing with the Australian player, the Serb said, “He told me it’s been over two years (since) he played an official singles match and he said this was his last singles match, he’s officially retired. So as I said, it’s not a great feeling for him being on the court like that.”

“There were a lot of singles players that had plenty of time, there were alternates, that could have been told to come. So this part I don’t get and I really hope that the (tennis governing body) ITF along with the Olympics will consider changing this rule because it’s tough on Matthew,” the 24-time grand slam champion said.

Both Djokovic and Rafa are right in their stands and this blunder with scheduling can also affect fans. They might not see the two clash in the much-anticipated men’s singles second round if Rafa decides to pull out of the men’s singles category. The replacement of a singles player with a doubles player impacts the intensity of the game as fans don’t get to see interesting clashes.