Rafael Nadal warmed up for his bid for another Olympic medal with a doubles victory at the Swedish Open in Bastad on Monday as the 22-time Grand Slam champion made his comeback to competition for the first time since May.
Nadal and Norwegian Casper Ruud defeated second seeds Guido Andreozzi and Miguel Reyes-Varela 6-1 6-4 on the Swedish clay. It was Nadal’s first appearance at the ATP 250 event since winning the singles at age 19 in 2005.
With a record 14 French Open singles titles under his belt, Nadal chose to forego Wimbledon in order to focus on his Olympic preparations on the clay courts of Roland Garros.
Nadal talked in a recent interview and said: “Personally, I am happy and I think it was a good match. We played quite well in the first time we played together and I’m happy to be back here after almost 20 years. I have great memories from this place from 2003, 2004 and 2005, so I am enjoying this week and hopefully can keep going.”
Nadal further talked about his plan to play Olympics and said: “I feel good, good enough to be here. I don’t know what the future holds, but today I’m looking forward to playing. It’s going to be a tough week with conditions that might be a bit difficult for me. The court is quite heavy, and the balls don’t help much. I’ve had a good month of training. I haven’t played many sets, but I did play some in Greece against Etcheverry, and there have been some good days here as well. I’m happy to play on clay here in Bastad and look forward to being at Roland Garros in two weeks for the Olympics, which gives me extra motivation.”
Nadal in Bastad, ranking, and results in 2024
Now ranked no.261, the Spaniard has managed to achieve a composed 8-5 record in 2024. The Spaniard is playing at the moment in Bastad where he toppled the world no.461 Leo Borg 6-3 6-4.
Rafael Nadal will face the world no.42 Cameron Norrie in the 2nd round. Their current record is 4-1 for Nadal.
Nadal won 92 titles in his career: 24 on hard courts, 63 on clay courts, 1 on indoor courts and 4 on grass courts. (See the list of his titles)
Rafael Nadal |
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