Nadal says Olympics ‘an experience you can’t miss’
With Rio de Janeiro in the rearview mirror and an Olympic doubles gold medal around his neck, Rafael Nadal still can’t quite understand why a host of tennis players chose not to go to the Summer Games.
“Olympics are once every four years and ... an experience you can’t miss,” the world No. 5 said Monday after a first-round win in the U.S. Open. “Even if you are young, you need to have the right people around you to advise you that you have to go there. ... Then when you are older you appreciate a lot of these events and these experiences that are completely special and unique.”
Milos Raonic, Dominic Thiem, the doubles team of Bob and Mike Bryan (gold medalists in 2012), Simona Halep, John Isner, Sam Querrey, Feliciano Lopez and others missed the Games for a variety of reasons, though for some players there was a complaint about absent ranking points and prize money, both of which had been awarded in previous Olympics.
Nadal, the gold medalist in singles in Beijing in 2008, missed the 2012 London Games because of injury. Another injury nearly knocked him out of Rio, as well.
“For me personally, Olympics is the closest thing to a Grand Slam,” he said. “That’s my feeling, no? And I can understand some players that are a little bit older that they decided to not go because they have been there. If they believe that there is no chances for medals, I could understand, but some young players that choose to not go there, it’s difficult to understand, no?”
Monica Puig shocked the sporting world with her Olympic gold in women’s singles, as the world No. 34 stunned three major tournament winners en route. Men’s sentimental favorite Juan Martin del Potro upset world No. 1 Novak Djokovic in the first round and beat Nadal in the semifinals before losing to Andy Murray in the final.
Nadal placed fourth in the singles event as Japan’s Kei Nishiko- ri won the bronze.
Nadal, a 14-time major winner, argued that the Olympic platform — regardless of tennis’ role on the global scale — gives the sport a new and different audience.
“I think if the star (players) are going to Olympics, it makes the Olympics bigger,” Nadal said. “It is true that we help to have the Olympics bigger, but the Olympics help us to be bigger (in the sporting world).
“There is a lot of fans around the world that they don’t follow tennis normally, but during the Olympics everybody sees the Olympics, no? So you have a lot of visibility during that week. In my opinion we should promote that.”