Rafa memories: doubles time

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Rafael Nadal didn’t play doubles all that often.

But when he did, he had great success, with 11 titles.

He played very little after 2019 – just five times.

One of those was with Jaume Munar at the Australian Open in 2022. And the last time was at the Paris Olympics with Carlos Alcaraz in a full-circle moment.

Who knows, perhaps in his career finale at Davis Cup we might see him on the doubles court again.

For the most part, he played with countrymen. Occasionally, he’d break that pattern (as he did with Novak Djokovic in Toronto in 2010).

His bringing Marc Lopez along for the ride was the biggest reason his friend ended up carving out a highly credible doubles career, after he’d sort of been going along not doing much for years.

And that, in turn, led to Lopez joining Nadal’s team after he retired.

He even teamed up with Lopez in Brisbane earlier this year – in a repeat of his teaming up with coach Francisco Roig in Montreal, 15 years before.

Here are a few shots of Nadal on the doubles court.