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By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday January 4, 2020

 
Garbine Muguruza

Garbine Muguruza hopes to join forces with Rafael Nadal for the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo.

Photo Source: Mark Peterson/ Corleve

Garbiñe Muguruza hopes to be a triple threat at the 2021 Olympics. The Spaniard, speaking to reporters in a virtual press conference from Abu Dhabi, where she is set to play in the main draw later this week at the Abu Dhabi Women’s Tennis Open, says she hopes to realize the dream of playing doubles with Rafael Nadal under the Spanish flag this summer in Tokyo.

Tennis Express

"I'm very excited,” Muguruza said. “Very excited for the Olympics. I was excited last year and I'm still excited—hopefully this year is going to happen."

Muguruza said she had hoped to play with Nadal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, but the plan never came together as Nadal pulled out of mixed while continuing his quest in singles and doubles in South America.

"Yes, of course I'm excited [about playing with Rafa]. We tried to play in Rio but it's kind of hard to play singles, doubles and mixed doubles so at the end we couldn't play, but yes, I'm always super looking forward to play with Rafa I think he's one of the best players in history to play with, I think that would be great.”

If Nadal could win a mixed doubles Gold medal, he would become the first male tennis player to claim gold in all three tennis disciplines. He won the singles gold in 2008 at Beijing and took the doubles title with Marc Lopez in 2016.


Muguruza said she would also like to reprise the formidable doubles duo that she formed with Carla Suarez Navarro. The pair have two titles under their belt to go with five WTA Finals. Suarez Navarro is planning to make a comeback from Hodgkin Lymphoma later this summer. The pair reached the quarterfinals together at the 2016 Rio Games, and also reached the semifinals at Roland-Garros together in 2014.

“I think that it would be great to play doubles with Carla, if she's able to be back, so I want to play all of the competitions,” Muguruza said.

The World No.15, seeded fifth at Abu Dhabi, will open her season with a first-round matchup with France’s Kristina Mladenovic. Muguruza is in top-seeded Sofia Kenin’s quarter of the draw. In total seven Top 20 players are set to play at Abu Dhabi.

View the full draw here:

 

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