Rafael Nadal has worked tirelessly at the Swedish Open but in the final, he came up against an inspired Nuno Borges and couldn’t land the prize he desperately craved.
The Olympics are on the horizon now and Nadal has meticulously planned his preparation in order to grasp a gold medal in Paris.
Nadal has tasted victory 14 times on the clay at Roland Garros playing in the French Open and he viewed the Swedish Open as a good warm-up.
The 38-year-old played four good matches to reach the final at the tournament; including wins over Great Britain star Cameron Norrie and Bjorn Borg’s son, Leo.
Nadal was comprehensively beaten in the final though and Borges has actually etched his name among some reputable company with his emphatic win.
Nuno Borges becomes fifth player to ever do something against Rafael Nadal
Well, this just sums up how well Borges played to comfortably despatch Nadal in Sweden over the weekend.
Although Nadal is coming to the end of his playing days, he is still a formidable opponent on clay usually.
Borges really did bring his a-game yesterday though and won 6-3, 6-2 to lift the trophy and claim a first career title.
The man who has never gone beyond the second round at the French Open might have even stunned himself with this performance and he now joins elite company.
After the win for the Portuguese player, the Tennis Letter claimed that Borges is now the fifth player in history to win against Nadal in straight sets during an ATP clay court final.
Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray have also achieved this feat, with Horacio Zeballos also doing it in Chile.
Nadal will remain a dangerous draw at the Olympics
The serial Grand Slam winner might have fallen short in Sweden but he looks to be showing some decent form going into the Olympics.
On clay – and at Roland Garros – Nadal can never really be ruled out and he will hope to cause quite a stir on courts he’s had mass success on.
Nadal will be one player that the seeded players are keen to avoid given that he’s often proved so unbeatable on clay courts before.
This will definitely be Nadal’s last Olympics and he will want to add another gold medal to the one he won in 2008 during the Beijing games.
Borges will be delighted to claim the win yesterday, however, and nobody will be able to remove him from this select clutch of players following his success.
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