Davis Cup Finals squads: Rafael Nadal for Spain, Jannik Sinner could face Carlos Alcaraz

Posted by Admin September 23, 2024 Tennis

World No. 1 Jannik Sinner and No. 3 Carlos Alcaraz could face off in the Davis Cup final this November, provided that both Italy and Spain advance through the final eight.

Both have been named in their respective nations’ squads for the Davis Cup Finals, which will take place from November 19-24 in Malaga, Spain.

Rafael Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, is part of the Spanish team, while Germany will be without this year’s French Open finalist Alexander Zverev. Former Wimbledon finalist Matteo Berrettini, meanwhile, did not make the cut for defending champions Italy.

The eight finalists — Italy, Argentina, the United States, Australia, Germany, Canada, Spain, and the Netherlands — announced their squads following the draw for the event, conducted on Monday, September 23.

Italy will play Argentina and the USA will play Australia in the top half, while Germany face Canada and Spain take on the Netherlands, in a possible rematch of the 2024 Paris Olympics doubles tie. Nadal and Alcaraz, dubbed ‘Nadalcaraz,’ won a match tiebreak against Tallon Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof after Koolhof near-singlehandedly dragged the Netherlands through another tiebreak to win the second set.

Sinner is accompanied by Lorenzo Musetti, Flavio Cobolli, and the specialist doubles pairing of Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, this year’s U.S. Open mixed doubles champion alongside fellow Italian Sara Errani. Alcaraz and Nadal are supported by Roberto Bautista Agut, Pablo Carreno Busta, and their own doubles specialist, Marcel Granollers.

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The USA, meanwhile, recall Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, and Ben Shelton, all of whom missed qualification in September after their U.S. Open exploits, in which Fritz reached the final. Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek, who eliminated Nadal and Alcaraz from the Olympics in a display of doubles mastery, will hope to be a factor.

For Nadal, who pulled out of the U.S. Open and Laver Cup, it is his only current confirmed event for the rest of 2024. He remains ambiguous about the shape of his career through the year and into 2025, with no decision yet made on whether or not it will be his last. He has not played since the Games, in which he rallied in the second set of his singles match against Novak Djokovic to avoid being routed by his former rival at the peak of the sport.

The Davis Cup Finals will cross over with the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, also to be held in Malaga, between November 13-20.

Every Nadal announcement comes with unanswered questions

Analysis from Matthew Futterman, senior tennis writer

Every Rafael Nadal announcement about his plans for competing, like the latest that he will represent Spain at the Davis Cup, carries with it two so-far unanswered questions.

Will he play this one? And if he does, will this one be the last one?

For more than a year, Nadal has been cagey about all this, but in a seemingly unintentional way. Wherever he has played this year, he has said that it could be for the last time – “there is a big chance” was the way he phrased it at the French Open. But he’s always left open the possibility that it might not be.

He has also resisted scheduling an actual retirement event. The closest thing to that happened after his loss to Jiri Lehecka at the Madrid Open in April. There were banners, a big trophy, speeches and a lot of tears shed, especially by Nadal’s sister. And then … He played in Rome and then Paris (twice, once at the French Open and the Olympics) with a warm-up for those Olympics in Bastad, Sweden.

Representing Spain in the Davis Cup in Malaga might be a perfect sendoff, but increasingly it seems that Nadal isn’t interested in that at the moment. He’s not actually ready to be sent off.