By Martyn Herman
PARIS (Reuters) -Serbia’s Novak Djokovic and Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz stayed on collision course for a golden showdown at the Paris Olympics as they surged through to the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
But Rafa Nadal’s hopes of writing one last golden chapter in his Roland Garros love story ended in disappointment as he and Alcaraz lost in the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen in the future, but if that’s the last time I enjoyed it,” the 38-year-old said after a 6-2 6-4 loss to Americans Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek on the court where the king of clay won 14 French Open titles.
Djokovic, also in the last-chance saloon as far as his Olympic title hopes go, beat Germany’s Dominic Koepfer 7-5 6-3 to reach the last eight at the Games for a record fourth time.
The 21-year-old Alcaraz, seeded second, then followed suit with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Russian Roman Safiullin.
Tokyo Olympics singles champion Alexander Zverev kept alive his hopes of a repeat as the third seed beat Australia’s Alexei Popyrin 7-5 6-3 to set up a quarter-final with Lorenzo Musetti.
Women’s singles top seed Iga Swiatek became the first player from Poland to reach an Olympic semi-final as Danielle Collins retired trailing 4-1 in the third set of their scrap.
With Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas set to play Djokovic and Norway’s sixth seed Casper Ruud through to face Canada’s Felix Auger-Aliassime, the men’s quarters are fully loaded.
But the women’s draw had more surprises with Anna Karolina Schmiedlova stunning Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic 6-4 6-2 to become the first Slovak since Miloslav Mecir in 1988 to reach the Olympic singles semi-finals.
China’s Zheng Qinwen ended the stellar career of Germany’s Angelique Kerber in a titanic tussle to emulate Li Na who reached the semi-finals of singles at the Beijing Games in 2008.
Kerber, who will retire after the Games, clung on grimly in stifling heat but Zheng eventually won 6-7(4) 6-4 7-6(6) to set up a semi-final with Swiatek.
Swiatek trounced Collins 6-1 in the first set but went off the boil to drop the second set 6-2 and was struck painfully by a Collins shot in the decider before moving 4-1 ahead, at which point the American eighth seed pulled out.
For all his 24 Grand Slam titles and countless accolades, the Olympics has never been especially kind to the 37-year-old Djokovic and a bronze medal remains his only souvenir.
But he looks in the mood to fill the only unoccupied space in his bulging trophy cabinet and is yet to drop a set.
After the emotions and hyperbole of Djokovic’s clash with Nadal on Monday, the atmosphere on a muggy centre court was more sedate as he comfortably dispatched 30-year-old Koepfer.
Koepfer was matching the Serb until 5-6 in the first set when he played two bad points to hand over the opener and from then on Djokovic was comfortable as he notched his 16th career singles win at the Olympics — the most by any player since tennis returned to the Games in 1988.
Standing in the way of Djokovic and a fourth Olympic singles semi-final is eighth seed Tsitsipas who beat Argentina’s Sebastian Baez. The last time they met at Roland Garros was in the French Open final in 2021 when Tsitsipas was two sets ahead before succumbing in five.
“I don’t expect anything less than a big fight and a tight match,” Djokovic said of Thursday’s clash. “The goal is to get to the finals and have a battle for that gold.”
Games debutant Alcaraz, aiming to add the Olympic title to his French Open and Wimbledon crowns, was too good for Safiullin but his day ended in disappointment as he failed to spark alongside his idol Nadal.
“I think we’ve played great points, great rallies, great matches, but I’m a little bit disappointed right now. Obviously we wanted to keep going,” Alcaraz said.
Norway’s Ruud will be eyeing a medal as the fifth seed beat Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina to set up a quarter-final with Canada’s Auger-Aliassime who finally broke his losing run against Russia’s Daniil Medvedev, beating the fourth seed 6-3 7-6(5) having lost their first seven meetings.
American Tommy Paul ended French hopes of a medal by beating Corentin Moutet 7-6 6-3 but doubles partner Taylor Fritz could not join him in the last eight, going down 6-4 7-5 to Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti.
There was more American disappointment as Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula, the doubles top seeds, lost in the second round to Czech pair Karolina Muchova and Linda Noskova.
Gauff’s disapppointing Games ended as she and Fritz lost in the mixed doubles quarter-finals to Auger Aliassime and Gabriela Dabrowski.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman; Editing by Ken Ferris, Christian Radnedge, Pritha Sarkar and Toby Davis)
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