Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz united their 26 Major titles and forged one of the most thrilling doubles teams in tennis history at the Olympic Games in Paris. Rafa and Carlos wrote history as the fourth pair of Major champions at the Olympic Games, the first since 2000.
Tennis returned to the Olympic Games in 1988, and we saw a couple of incredible doubles pairs in Barcelona 1992. Jim Courier and Pete Sampras joined forces for the USA on the clay court, prevailing over Stefan Edberg and Anders Jarryd in five sets in the first round.
The Americans faced the home duo of Sergio Casal and Emilio Sanchez in the second round and looked good to cause an upset. However, the Spaniards bounced back and scored a 5-7, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory in front of the home fans, delivering a tough loss for Major champions.
It was a terrible day at the office for Sampras, who previously suffered a 6-7(7), 1-6, 7-5, 6-0, 6-3 loss to Andrei Chesnokov in the singles third round in three hours and 49 minutes.
The American forged the advantage and stood close to the finish line in the third set before dropping 14 of the final 17 games!
A couple of hours later, he and Courier built a massive advantage in the doubles draw before dropping 18 of the final 25 games, fading from the court and ending their campaign. Casal and Sanchez met another pair of Major winners in the next round, with Boris Becker and Michael Stich forming a dangerous team.
The Germans took down the Spaniards in five sets, remaining on the title course and defeating Wayne Ferreira and Piet Norval in four sets in the gold medal match to secure glory for Germany. Eight years later, Yevgeny Kafelnikov and the newly-crowned US Open champion Marat Safin defended the colors of Russia in Sydney.
