One of the greatest tennis players of all time is finally going out in style.
Rafael Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, has shockingly advanced to his first ATP final in two years.
The 6-foot-1 superstar, now just the No. 160-ranked player on the planet thanks to a raft of injuries and some age-related issues, bested 23-year-old Croatian Duje Ajduković, the No. 130 player in the world, in their semifinal series of the ATP 250 Nordea Open on Saturday in Bastad, Sweden. Nadal came back after dropping the first set to notch a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory.
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On Sunday, Nadal will face off against 27-year-old Portuguese pro-Nuno Borges to claim his 93rd career ATP singles victory. Borges ranked as the No. 51 player in the world, is the tournament’s No. 7 seed.
Generally considered to be the best men’s clay court player in the Open era, Nadal is looking to eke out his 64th victory on that surface.
“It was a very tough match,” Nadal said following the match, per Tennis.com. “He has one of the best backhands that I’ve played against, and he came here with a lot of confidence. I think I was trying to push him back, and it was very, very difficult, but I found a way to survive.”
After dropping the first set and losing the first game of the second, Nadal capitalized on some serving mistakes from Ajduković. He adjusted to level the match.
“Always, it’s a great feeling to be back in a final. I won four matches in a row, something I wasn’t able to make happen since two years ago,” Nadal boasted.
Though he got out to a 3-0 advantage in the third set, Ajduković won the next three consecutive games, leveling things at 3-3. Nadal then broke Ajduković’s serve for the sixth time during their match, climbing out of a 15-40 hole in the next game to close out the set, 6-3.
“In this process of recovering a lot of things I lost … things have not been going that easy, but I’m fighting,” Nadal said. “I was fighting during the whole tournament to be where I am today, and I think matches like yesterday, like today, help to improve a lot of things on court. I’m happy with that.”
Nadal is ultimately still gearing up for the 2024 Paris Olympics next week, to be held at the site of his greatest on-court triumphs, Roland Garros. When there, he won his record 14 French Open titles.
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