Happy with his physique and not so much with his tennis, Nadal evaluates his time in Bastad: “It’s positive” | ATP Tour

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Happy with his physique and not so much with his tennis, Nadal evaluates his time in Bastad: “It’s positive”

The Spaniard played his first final in two years

July 21, 2024

Despite Sunday’s tough 6-3, 6-2 defeat to Nuno Borges at the Nordea Open, Rafael Nadal preferred to analyse the two sides of the coin of his week in Bastad. After all, the 38-year-old left-hander played his first final since Roland Garros 2022.

“The level was far from what it should be. The energy level too,” he said of his performance on Sunday. “It was a long week with long matches. Even though my body is not damaged, which is important, I have not been so used to playing long matches for four days in a row.”

After beating fifth seed Cameron Norrie in straight sets on Thursday, Nadal won marathons over the next two days against fourth seed Mariano Navone and then Duje Ajdukovic. Those battles that went down to the decider seemed to take their toll on Sunday, when Nadal looked lackluster against Borges.

“I need to analyze it well and find the reason why I played that way, even if the energy was not right,” he said. “There are many things that cannot happen on the court if you want to play at the level I want to play. Things like this can happen today, and that is the situation. I don’t have to lie or hide anything.”

Despite his disappointment, Nadal also gave credit to Borges, who won his first ATP Tour title: “He did a lot of things well, he didn’t make many mistakes, he returned well. He took advantage of the opportunities, so good for him. I’m happy for him. He deserved it more than the rest of the players who played in this tournament. I hope he enjoys this great moment.”

Ahead of the Paris Olympics at Roland Garros, where Nadal will play singles and compete in doubles alongside Carlos Alcaraz, the Spaniard is hoping to arrive in better shape than he showed in Bastad.

“I played the final, that’s positive. I was able to play long matches without having an injury, that’s good. In some ways I felt like I came here training much better than I played in the tournament throughout the week. That’s something I’m not happy with. I came here with the feeling that I was playing at a good level and I wasn’t able to show that throughout the week. That’s something I’m not happy with.”

“It’s a final anyway, so I can’t say it’s a bad result because it’s the first final in a long time. But I didn’t feel comfortable enough throughout the week to be satisfied with the tennis I played.”