Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz dumped out by American doubles specialists

Rafael Nadal has probably played at Roland Garros for the last time, after he and his partner Carlos Alcaraz were ousted from the Olympics by a pair of American doubles specialists.

In a spectacular contest, Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek overcame not only the most successful singles player of all time on this court, but what felt like 15,000 hostile fans as well.

It wasn’t that the Americans were unpopular; simply that no-one in the stands wanted to see Nadal go out. The closer the Spaniards came to elimination, the louder they yelled. The atmosphere resembled that of a rowdy Davis Cup tie, as the fans applauded missed first serves from the American duo as if they were screaming Spanish winners.

But go out Nadal did, nevertheless, after Krajicek pulled out the grittiest of service holds to seal the 6-2, 6-4 win and claim a place in the semi-finals. The last shot – a perfect Krajicek “can-opener” serve that hit the line and kept going for a clean ace – was met with almost complete silence.

Nadal and Alcaraz had already come through two rounds but this was a different level of opponent. The Americans had the legendary Bryan brothers in their player box, and frankly one wondered whether Bob and Mike could have improved on this note-perfect display.

Krajicek and Ram broke at the earliest opportunity, targeting Alcaraz at the net as Nadal served first. They were ruthless in their returning, and their own service games were so slick that they didn’t give up a single break.

The closest that the Spanish came to breaking serve was in the final game, when the fans were kicking up a huge rumpus. It felt like Krajicek was regularly having to wait for 30 seconds or more for the noise to die down before he served, and the chair umpire was reduced to helplessness as she kept saying “Please, please, the players are ready.”