Rafa in action Saturday with Carlos Alcaraz.
Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams took center stage for the lighting of the Olympic cauldron Friday night in Paris, as the world’s attention moved to the City of Lights for the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympics.
Nadal, who has won 14 of his 22 Grand Slam titles in Paris at Roland Garros, received the Olympic flame from French football icon Zinedine Zidane before boarding a boat on the Seine with Williams, nine-time gold medalist Carl Lewis, and five-time gold medalist Nadia Comaneci.
The trio then passed the torch to Amelie Mauresmo, the Roland Garros tournament director and a French tennis legend, who carried it to the Louvre. Teddy Riner, a French judoka, and Marie-Josée Pérec, a former French track and field star, had the honor of lighting the one-of-a-kind cauldron, which resembled an ascending balloon in tribute to the Montgolfier brothers’ first ‘aerostatic’ flight at Versailles in 1783.
Nadal, a former Olympic gold medalist in singles (2008) and doubles (2016 with Marc Lopez), and previous No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings, will play doubles with Carlos Alcaraz on Saturday.