Exhausted Nadal gives up on treble dream

RIO DE JANEIRO: Rafael Nadal gave up his ambitious dream of an Olympic golden treble Thursday after spending an exhausting four hours on court to reach the singles

RIO DE JANEIRO: Rafael Nadal gave up his ambitious dream of an Olympic golden treble Thursday after spending an exhausting four hours on court to reach the singles quarter-finals and men’s doubles final.

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The 30-year-old Spaniard was set to partner French Open champion Garbine Muguruza in the mixed but withdrew just moments before they were to face Lucie Hradecka and Radek Stepanek in a first round tie.

The effort of downing Gilles Simon in the singles followed just a couple of hours later by teaming with lifelong friend Marc Lopez to beat Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil to make the gold medal doubles match proved too much.

Nadal, playing for the first time in two and a half months after a wrist injury forced him out of the French Open, started Thursday staring at a gruelling 10-match schedule in just four days if he was to win three golds.

But having already spent eight hours on court this week, followed by four more on Thursday, the 14-time major winner ran out of gas, his plans not helped by all of Wednesday’s schedule being washed out. Nadal had hinted that he was unlikely to fullfil his mixed doubles commitments just after seeing off Nestor and Pospisil 7-6 (7/1), 7-6 (7/4) to set-up Friday’s gold medal clash against Florin Mergea and Horia Tecau of Romania. When asked if it was possible to win three golds, he replied: “No, no, that’s impossible.”

He added: “My only priority is that I have a silver medal for sure. For us, it’s a dream come true.