The 37-year-old Nadal has announced his plans to retire next year and it is thought that the Spaniard had hoped to bow out at Roland Garros, where the Paris 2024 tennis competitions will be held.

It is also where he won a record 14 French Open titles.

However, under current ITF rules he will have to make an appeal to be granted entry as he will not have played in the last two editions of the Davis Cup.

There are four conditions that give players a chance to compete at the Olympic Games which are: injury or illness, being a newcomer to the Davis Cup or Billie Jean King Cup, strength of nation, and commitment to and achievement at the Olympic tennis event and/or the Davis Cup or Billie Jean King Cup.

"That is the rule," German Tennis Federation President Dietloff von Arnim told City A.M.

"Why do we make it so difficult?

"Rafa is thinking about playing in Paris.

"Make it easy for them to play there.

"They want to play.

"We have to change the rules.

"I'm not sitting on the board or the Olympic Committee but I think we should discuss it."

Nadal won men's singles Olympic gold at Beijing 2008 and finished fourth at Rio 2016 but did not compete at London 2012 or Tokyo 2020.

He also won the doubles title at Rio 2016 alongside Marc López. 

The ITF maintains that its current appeals process works well and does not need changing.

"It is the norm across all Olympic and Paralympic sports for there to be qualification criterion to represent your nation in the Games, and tennis is no exception," an ITF spokesperson told insidethegames. 

"An Appeals process is in place for players who have not met the eligibility rule. 

"This process is straightforward and has worked smoothly for successive Games. 

"Players can appeal on grounds under 4 categories set out in the rule here olympic-tennis-event-eligibility-rule-paris-2024.pdf (itftennis.com)."

Von Arnim is standing against current ITF President David Haggerty in next year's elections and has said that he would look to change the rules to allow Nadal to play at the Games.

He is also eager to see athletes be able to earn ranking points at the Olympic tennis tournaments.

"If I can still do so I would surely do it, and think about points for the Olympics, because I think from the players point of view it’s not fair," he said.

"We should make it easy for the players to play and take the obstacles away. 

"Let them play, make it easy for them. 

"We have to make all of our decisions understandable to the players and support their point of view.

"[Tokyo 2020 champion] Sascha [Zverev] came to me and said 'can you please explain to me why I did not get points at the Olympics?'

"I think it’s so important that tennis is played at the Olympics.

"The players love it, we love it for the promotion of the game.

"But why did Sascha not get points?

"Why don't we do that?

"We are the ITF, we have to talk to the ATP, and let's make a fair adjustment that players get points.

"Sascha was not happy at all."

Tennis at Paris 2024 is set to take place from July 27 to August 4 next year.