Rafael Nadal has stepped up his preparations for the Olympic Games by winning his first match at the Nordea Open in Sweden.
There is always huge interest every time Nadal steps on a tennis court and we don’t know how many more times we will see the Spanish legend as he edges towards the end of his remarkable career.
Yet despite an early fall on a slippery baseline after early morning rain in Sweden, Nadal moved through his gears and looked comfortable on his favourite clay surface.
Nadal was playing his first singles match since an opening-round loss to Alexander Zverev at the French Open in May, with the name of his opponent adding to the attention of this first round match.
Ranked 461, Borg was given a wild card for the tournament in Bastad and competed well against his illustrious opponent before succumbing to a 6-3 6-4 defeat.
“Great feelings,” said Nadal in his on-court interview.
“For me, it has been a huge honour to play against the son of one of the biggest legends in the history of our sport.
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“I think he played quite well, he has a future in front so I wish him all the very best.”
Nadal opted to skip Wimbledon and continue his practice on clay as he focused on the Olympics, where he will play singles and also form an enticing double combination with French Open and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz.
Over 300,000 tickets for the Olympic tennis event in Paris have been sold out and the matches everyone will want to see will be the doubles contests featuring the Spanish dream team of Nadal and Alcaraz.
“It’s exciting to play with Carlos,” added Nadal “My impression is we are talking about a player that is going to be one of the best in history. That’s my feeling.
“He is a player with huge potential. Life can change quickly, that’s the truth. You never know what can happen in the future. But today if we have to predict what’s going on in his career, we predict amazing things.
“His level of tennis is super high. If he is able to stay away from injuries, of course (Jannik) Sinner is there, but I see him with Sinner over the rest today without a doubt.
“I don’t see a lot of players that can stop him on Tour and I think the best thing that he has today is in every tournament that he plays, doesn’t matter the surface, he is going to be the favourite.”
The win against Borg was Nadal’s 1076th on the ATP Tour, with Nadal serving up some impressive statistics for his first match in over a month.
He got 74 per-cent of his first serves in, won 82 per-cent of his first service points and didn’t face a break point against Borg.
Nadal is currently ranked at No 261 in the world after missing most of 2023 due to injury and only playing a limited schedule thi year.
He should have a stiffer test next against British No 2 Cameron Norrie, who defeated Jozef Kovalik in the first round on Monday.