Rafael Nadal is preparing to partner Carlos Alcaraz in the doubles at the Olympics in Paris.
Rafael Nadal put on his typical brave face as he suffered a relatively one-sided defeat to Portugal’s Nuno Borges in the final of the Swedish Open in Bastad.
Despite an early exchange of breaks in the first set, Borges tweaked his game and managed to take advantage of a slightly weary Nadal, who had played a handful of incredibly long matches in his run to the final.
The 38-year-old put on a remarkable display in the quarter-finals against Mariano Navone coming back from a set down to conquer the Argentine in four hours.
The tournament had a number of top players featuring with Andrey Rublev, Casper Ruud, and Cam Norrie looking for a warm-up ahead of Paris 2024, where he is set to partner Carlos Alcaraz in the doubles.
What did Rafael Nadal highlight as a positive despite the defeat?
With the Olympics imminent and Nadal only having played two tour-level finals since 2022, with the second coming this week in Bastad, the Spaniard is hardly coming into Paris 2024 in solid shape.
This week however has certainly cleared up a few questions about Nadal’s form with the Spaniard beating players like Norrie on his route to the final.
After the match, Nadal said: “I played a final. That’s positive. I was able to play long matches without having an injury and that’s good,” the Spaniard reflected.
“I felt I arrived here practicing much better than what I played in the tournament the whole week. That’s something I am not satisfied with. I arrived with the feeling I was playing at a good level and I was not able to show that during the whole week.
“That’s something I am not happy with. It’s the final, I can’t say it’s a bad result as it’s the first final since a long time ago, but I was not able to feel comfortable enough the whole week to feel satisfied with the level of tennis that I played.”
What has Rafael Nadal’s form been like in 2024?
It has been far from a smooth 2024 for Nadal as injuries have plagued the veteran player, who has been an ATP Tour player for over 20 years.
He kicked off the year in Brisbane, beating 2020 US Open champion Dominic Thiem in the process before sustaining an injury in the quarter-finals which saw him withdraw from the Australian Open.
A premature exit to eventual finalist Alexander Zverev in the opening round of the French Open was a kick in the teeth for the 14-time Roland Garros champion, who then decided to skip the entirety of the grass season including Wimbledon.
The world now must wait to see if Nadal can clinch his third Olympic gold after his success in the singles in 2008, and doubles in 2016.
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