Alcaraz to play apprentice to sorcerer Nadal

Carlos Alcaraz will be keeping his mouth shut when he plays alongside Rafael Nadal in Paris Olympic doubles, with the young gun world No. 3 happy to live and learn at the feet of the master.

The Spanish pair are due to team up when the Games begin on Friday in heavily fortified Paris, whose security no-go zones are already frustrating Parisiens.

With Nadal expected to naturally take the lead in the all-star doubles due, Alcaraz will be content to follow orders from the kind of clay at the tournament being played in familiar surrounds at Roland Garros, a happy hunting ground for the 14-time French Open champion.

“I’m new, I’m the rookie here, so I have to keep my mouth shut and just listen to him,” the youngster told ABC Sports.

“I’m not nervous right now. When the time comes, I will be. 

“Obviously, he’s already experienced this, he already knows what it’s like to play in the Olympics, to win a gold in both singles and doubles.”

Nadal turned in a finals performance at the weekend in Bastad at the ATP 250 after skipping Wimbledon so as not to compromise his clay-court rhythm.

The pair, separated by 17 years and nearly two decades of Tour experience, are not joined at the hip and plan to meet up for training and matches in hopes of just getting the job done.

“He’s doing his thing, we’re doing ours,” Alcaraz said.  “We talk very little, but when we’re at the Games, we’ll talk about doubles and, above all, how we’re going to do it.

 “I am going to go for the title, going in thinking that I can win it. That’s my goal to bring a (singles) medal to my country, hopefully the gold medal,” 

“Obviously, the doubles with Rafa is going to be a really dream moment for me,  we will try to bring home the gold medal again (Nadal won Beijing gold in 2008).”