Rafael Nadal Keeps Olympic Flame Burning, Murray Back From The Brink

Rafael Nadal kept alive his dream of a third Olympic gold on Tuesday, powering into the men's doubles quarter-finals alongside teammate Carlos Alcaraz as Andy Murray once again came back from the dead. A tearful Coco Gauff crashed out of the singles after a heated row with the umpire but women's top seed Iga Swiatek cruised into the last eight. In the men's draw, defending champion Alexander Zverev reached the third round after beating Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic in straight sets and was joined in the last 16 by Russia's Daniil Medvedev, playing as a neutral.

With temperatures rocketing into the mid-30s Celsius, officials activated a heat protocol at Roland Garros, allowing a 10-minute break between the second and third sets.

Nadal was back on court alongside Alcaraz in the "Nadalcaraz" dream team just 24 hours after he was dumped out of the singles competition by Novak Djokovic in their 60th contest.

The Spanish pair, backed by a vocal crowd on Court Suzanne Lenglen, lost the second set but stepped up a gear in the match tie-break to beat Dutch team Tallon Griekspoor and Wesley Koolhof 6-4, 6-7 (2/7), 10-2 in two hours and 22 minutes.

"We had fun because the score was positive in the (match) tie-break," said Nadal.

"We have been suffering but we are enjoying playing together, we are creating good synergies, good energy, so yeah, we are having fun in general terms."

The 38-year-old, a 14-time French Open champion, has been plagued by injuries in recent years and has slumped to 161st in the world.

He said after his painful defeat to Djokovic that he would make a decision on his future after the Paris Games, where he still has a chance to add to his singles gold at the 2008 Beijing Games and doubles triumph in Rio