Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz practiced together before the Davis Cup Finals. The results of it will encourage those hoping Nadal will compete in the team event's singles.
Nadal announced last month that the Davis Cup Finals would be his final professional appearance. That means the entire tennis world will be focused on Malaga on Tuesday when Team Spain faces the Netherlands.
Speculation about whether Nadal will play singles, doubles, both, or neither has been rampant for weeks. The Spanish team has not said too much about how involved the 38-year-old might be.
Nadal, probably due to how many injuries he has sustained in the last couple of years, did not reveal much about how much he might be involved at the Davis Cup Finals, speaking cautiously about his preparations in recent weeks.
The 14-time French Open champion does not want all the attention to be on him despite it being his farewell. Nadal says he is competing at the Finals to win the title for Spain, not just to retire.
Alcaraz has spoken several times about Nadal being one of his childhood idols. The 21-year-old is devastated that the tennis legend's career is ending and knows tennis will be a worse sport without him.
Nadal and Alcaraz could rekindle their doubles partnership from this year's Olympics. The pair played well together, and it took a very good performance from the experienced team of Rajeev Ram and Austin Krajicek to overcome them.
However, there are two potential complications for that idea. Firstly, Team Spain has a doubles expert in Marcel Granollers, and it might feel unwise not to use him during matches.
Secondly, despite what Nadal says about the team's hopes coming first, the 38-year-old only being chosen for doubles could mean the tennis legend does not play at all in his farewell appearance.
That is because the doubles matches are played only if the tie is locked at 1-1. If the Netherlands took an unassailable 2-0 lead after two singles contests, Nadal was not involved in, that would spell the end of his career.
However, footage of Nadal and Alcaraz practicing together and some other information about Team Spain's practice session might be the strongest indication yet that Nadal will play in the singles instead of doubles.
Below is a clip of the pair practicing together. Nadal and Alcaraz are playing at a pretty high intensity, and journalist Tumaini Carayol, who witnessed the practice, revealed interesting information afterward.
"Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz just played points for about 35 minutes and it finished 4-4. Alcaraz was a bit sloppy early on but Nadal served well and looked more than competitive. Granollers/Martínez are now playing doubles vs Ram/Krajicek. Interesting choice for Ferrer..."
Although it is not guaranteed, Nadal playing singles and Team Spain working on doubles with a separate team the day before the Finals start have shortened the odds of Nadal competing in the singles, especially since he competed well against Alcaraz.