At the Nordea Open, Rafael Nadal and Casper Ruud triumphed in a first-round doubles match, marking Nadal’s first visit to the clay courts in 19 years.
This is Nadal’s first visit back to the vicinity since he won the 2005 singles championship in southern Sweden when he was just 19 years old. Now he is back as he prepares for the clay-court Olympic competition at Roland Garros in Paris.
Nadal and Ruud defeated second-seeded Guido Andreozzi and Miguel Reyes-Varela 6-1, 6-4. This was the 38-year-old Spaniard’s first match on the tour since he was defeated by Alexander Zverev in the French Open first round last May.
Nadal: “It’s a pleasure playing with a good friend”
With their doubles win, Nadal said: “It’s a pleasure playing with a good friend and an amazing player like Casper here in Bastad… Personally, I am happy and I think it was a good match. We played quite well in the first time we played together and I’m happy to be back here after almost 20 years.”
“I have great memories from this place from 2003, 2004 and 2005, so I am enjoying this week and hopefully can keep going,” he added.
The wildcard combination of Nadal and Ruud, who both used strong groundstrokes throughout, dominated the match for 79 minutes, only to have it cut short twice by passing storms of rain.
Ruud expressed: “Like Rafa said, I think it was a good match. When it comes to the rain delays, I’m used to it more than Rafa, being from Norway and he is from Spain… He is getting old so I’m not sure how his body feels when he has to stop and start all the time, but he did well. We played good doubles and it was a lot of fun to share the court with Rafa as always.”
In the second round, either Theo Arribage and Roman Safiullin or Mariano Navone and Britain’s Cameron Norrie will face the team-up of the 22-time major champion Rafael Nadal and the world’s eighth-ranked Ruud.
Furthermore, Nadal will take on Leo Borg, the son of the legendary Bjorn Borg of Sweden, in the opening round of the Bastad singles competition.
Sources: Hindustan Times, Sky Sports