Nadal Advances to Swedish Open Final After Grueling Three-Set Battle.

In Bastad, Sweden, Rafael Nadal secured his place in the Swedish Open final by defeating Duje Ajdukovic in a challenging three-set match. This marks Nadal’s first final appearance since the 2022 French Open. The Spanish veteran triumphed over the unseeded Croatian with a score of 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in two hours and 12 minutes.

The 38-year-old will face Portugal’s seventh seed, Nuno Borges, on Sunday. Borges advanced to the final by defeating unseeded Argentinian Thiago Agustin Tirante 6-4, 6-3 in their semi-final match. Reflecting on his semi-final, Nadal commented, “It was a very tough match – my opponent has one of the best backhands I have played against. He came here with a lot of confidence. I was trying to push him back and it was very difficult. I found a way to survive.”

This final will be Nadal’s 131st tour final and his 72nd on clay. “It is always a good feeling to get back into a final,” he said. “I’m still in this process of recovering a lot of things that I lost because I had an important hip surgery almost a year ago. Things are not going that easy, but I am fighting.” Nadal had also been scheduled to compete in the Swedish Open men’s doubles semi-final with Casper Ruud, but the pair withdrew to conserve Nadal’s energy for the singles final, allowing Brazil’s Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos to advance to the final.

In the semi-final match against Ajdukovic, Nadal lost the first set 3-6 but rallied to win the second set 6-4. He started strong in the third set, breaking Ajdukovic twice to lead 3-0. Although Ajdukovic fought back to level the set at 3-3, Nadal managed to break again and held his serve to win the match. Throughout the match, Nadal converted six break points, while Ajdukovic managed to convert only five out of ten opportunities.