Rafael Nadal reached the 2024 Bastad Open final against Nuno Borges, but the Spaniard played a bad match and lost in two sets.
Nadal's overall experience in Bastad was very good. The Spaniard made the final in the singles and the semi-final in the doubles at the ATP 250 tournament. He came to Sweden to see where his tennis stood because he hadn't played any matches since his Roland Garros exit weeks ago.
He practiced the entire time, but practice can only get you so far, and the 38-year-old needed proper matches to understand where he stood. In that sense, the 22-time major winner accomplished his goal because he played a lot of tennis and was at a very good level most of the time.
The final wasn't very good for him, but by the time he arrived in the final, the Spaniard was drained. He had spent over six hours in the two matches prior, which left him quite drained when he played the final.
Facing a very inspired player who is much younger and was playing in his maiden final created all sorts of problems, as Nuno Borges was able to jump all over him from the start and never let go.
Nadal accepted reality after the final, admitting to the media that he played poorly and that was why he lost. He was sad about the performance, but that's just part of tennis. The positive is that he can't play any worse than he did, and even so, he was competitive for a while.
"I have a lot of experience and I knew that things weren't going to be easy. I just have to accept everything that comes and keep working to improve. I played very badly and I'm sad about it, I find it difficult to play worse than I did today."
As expected, the Spaniard admitted feeling very drained when asked what went wrong. You could see it in how he played, as he was pretty slow to move around and late on many shots.
He also missed a lot, totaling over 20 unforced errors in 17 games of play, so he had over one unforced error per game. He also didn't serve well, which allowed Borges to return aggressively, further creating problems for him.
He was simply too flat because he was drained. Still, he praised his opponent, calling him a deserved winner.
"I felt drained of energy, something that can be normal because I hadn't competed for a long time for several consecutive days, and I also had long and intense matches. Nuno deserved to win, he played much better than me."
"I've always tried to find solutions, but the level has been far from what I should have shown. It's important for me that my body has endured the demands of the week, but physically and mentally I've run out of energy for today. That may have been one of the reasons for my poor performance in the final, but I have a lot of things to analyse."
Overall, it was a positive week for Nadal because he tested his body physically and his game as well. He can now focus on the Olympics, where he will certainly have something to say. Medals might seem a bit out of reach, but it is important to remember that he's a 14-time champion on the courts where the Olympic Games will be played.
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