PARIS (AP) — Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz all are on the Paris Olympics’ tennis schedule Saturday, the first day of action at Roland Garros.
Serbia’s Djokovic will compete in singles only, Nadal in doubles only and Alcaraz in both. Nadal and Alcaraz are teammates in doubles for Spain and will face Maximo Gonzalez and Andres Molteni of Argentina at Court Philippe Chatrier during the night session.
Nadal’s singles debut will come Sunday against Marton Fucsovics of Hungary. If he wins, and Djokovic wins his first-round match against Matthew Ebden on Saturday, the two rivals will face each other in the second round of what could be the final event of the 38-year-old Nadal’s career.
Djokovic owns 24 Grand Slam titles. Nadal has 22, plus two Olympic golds — one in singles in 2008 and in doubles in 2016.
When Djokovic played in the French Open, he tore the meniscus in his right knee and needed surgery in Paris on June 5. He recovered in time to compete at Wimbledon, where he made it to the final before losing to Alcaraz.
“Expectations for the Olympics are high, and I can’t and don’t want to change that. It creates a personal motivation for me to approach it in the best possible way for the best possible result,” said Djokovic, who took home a bronze in 2008.
The first match in Chatrier will involve top-ranked Iga Swiatek of Poland, who has won four of the past five championships in that stadium at the French Open, against Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania. That will be followed by Djokovic vs. Ebden. After Nadal and Alcaraz start the night session, the day’s program concludes with a pair of former No. 1 players who own multiple major titles: Naomi Osaka of Japan vs. Angelique Kerber of Germany.
Jasmine Paolini of Italy, the runner-up to Swiatek at the French Open in June and to Barbora Krejcikova at Wimbledon this month, opens play at Court Suzanne Lenglen against Ana Bogdan on Romania.
That will be followed by Alcaraz, who is coming off trophies at the French Open and Wimbledon, against Hady Habib of Lebanon.