Rafael Nadal has been proving that he shouldn't be discounted this week at the 2024 Bastad Open, and he did it once again in the semi-final.
The 38-year-old isn't the player he was a decade ago, that's clear. Still, that doesn't mean that he isn't the fighter that he was a decade ago, because he absolutely is, and he's been proving it this year at the ATP 250 tournament in Bastad.
As a player who has won 22 Grand Slam tournaments in his tennis career, it would be easy to say that he didn't have to care that much about his results in the Swedish city, because, as viewed by most, it served mostly as a preparation for the Paris Olympics.
But Nadal doesn't fall into the category of the 'most'. If he did, he arguably wouldn't have 22 majors to his name, and wouldn't be the greatest clay-court player of all-time.
That's why he fought for every single point that he played this week in Bastad, including in a four-hour marathon against Mariano Navone, which he ended up winning 6-7(2), 7-5, 7-5.
As a result, he found himself in the semi-finals of the tournament, taking on Duje Ajdukovic from Croatia, ranked 130th in the world. It's been a great week for the Croatian, but he certainly didn't expect to face a 14-time French Open champion in the semi-finals of an ATP 250 tournament.
Yet, he did, and he did really well. In the opening three games of the match, he was much better than his opponent. Yes, he was much better than the legendary Spaniard, outplaying him in almost every single rally.
The Croatian was able to use his power to his advantage, and he hit his spots perfectly, which meant that only after a few minutes of play, he led 3-0 with two breaks of his opponent's serve.
It was a shocking development, but what followed wasn't that shocking. The Spaniard fought, as he did so many times in his tennis career. First, he recovered one of the breaks in the opening set, but it wasn't enough to challenge for the set, as his opponent stayed very solid on his serve, winning the first set 6-4.
The Croatian also started the second set with a break of his opponent's serve, but he couldn't hold it for too long, as immediately in the following game, the 2005 Bastad Open champion broke him back.
Nadal then increased the intensity and his level as the match went on, and he was able to add one more break in the second set to win it 6-3 and force another decider in the Swedish city.
Like against Navone in the second set, he jumped out on a 3-0 lead with two breaks of serve. But unfortunately for him, like against Navone, he lost both of those breaks and soon enough the scoreboard showed 3-3.
However, one thing that was different from the match against the Argentinian was that this time, he didn't go down 3-4, but instead, he won that crucial seventh game, leading 4-3.
He completely stopped his opponent's momentum in that game, and he did it also in the following game when he saved two break points to lead 5-3. Ajdukovic then won his service game to give himself one more chance, but his opponent didn't offer any chances.
Nadal held his final service game to 15, winning the match 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in what was yet another breath-taking comeback from the Spaniard, who will play in the 2024 Bastad Open final against the winner of the match between the seventh-seeded Nuno Borges and Thiago Agustin Tirante, who stunned defending champion Andrey Rublev at the tournament.
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