A festive atmosphere prevailed with the umpire having to call for silence throughout the contest. The tennis dished up on the court made it impossible for the fans to remain in their seats.

A brilliant Nadal return down the line and past Molteni at the net ultimately sealed the first set and gave Spain the early leg up – 7-4 in the tie-break.

The Argentina duo came out swinging in the second set taking a 3-0 lead before Nadal/Alcaraz held their next serve and recovered the break. A scream of ‘vamos’ reverberated across the arena as the momentum swung back in Spain’s favour winning three in a row (3-3). Spain came painstakingly close to making it four, but Gonzalez and Molteni managed to hold serve.

Alcaraz and Nadal did not have to wait long for the breakthrough as they found the edge for a sniff of victory.

Nadal delivered the goods on his serve to win the set and the match.

Earlier, Alcaraz got his maiden Olympics off to a winning start in the singles competitions making short shrift of Hady Habib (6-3, 6-1). Nadal, in turn, will take on Marton Fucsovics in the first round of the singles competition on Sunday.

Paris 2024 is a fitting farewell at Nadal’s spiritual home of Roland Garros where he has won a record 14 of his 22 Grand Slam titles. As the curtain is drawn on Nadal’s spectacular career, the 21-year-old Alcaraz already has four Grand Slams to his name, including a maiden French Open title from last month.

Nadal received a hero’s welcome in Paris the night before when he received the Olympic flame from French football legend Zinedine Zidane at the foot of the Eiffel Tower during the Opening Ceremony. The Spanish legend then joined Serena Williams, nine-time Olympic gold medallist Carl Lewis and five-time gymnastics gold medallist Nadia Comaneci for a boat ride on the Seine.