After spending over 12 hours on the courts this week at the 2024 Bastad Open, Rafael Nadal ran out of steam in the final, losing to a very solid Nuno Borges.
After spending much of the grass season on the sidelines, the 38-year-old Spaniard returned to the tennis courts in Bastad for clay tennis ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, and it was an exciting week for him.
He started in the doubles with a win with Casper Ruud and continued that in the singles, ultimately making the semi-final in both singles and doubles. The Spaniard won his semi-final match to secure the final but abandoned the doubles semi-final at the ATP 250 event after exerting too much energy in the singles.
It was a very logical decision because he spent over four hours on the courts in his quarter-final match against Mariano Navone and over two hours in his semi-final against Duje Adjukovic.
That workload certainly proved crucial in this match as well because the Spaniard clearly felt its effects. Borges is a much younger player who didn't spend as much time on the courts this week, and he had more bounce to his game at the start.
A huge problem for Nadal at the start was his inability to really create any kind of pressure on his opponent with his serve, which hasn't been effective all week long. The Portuguese player was dominating the 22-time major winner on the first serve in that opening set, breaking his serve three times en route to a 6-3 finish.
Nadal wasn't playing that better from the baseline either, as he was missing on both his forehand and backhand. He had no choice but to play aggressively because Borges was hitting the ball close to the line, which pushed the former World No. 1 off the baseline.
He needed to increase his own aggressiveness to avoid being a sitting duck. In the end, it wouldn't be enough for the first set as Borges won 6-3, but winning only 40% of his first-serve points and 36% of his second-serve points was never going to cut it for the 2005 champion.
Add in the line of only one winner and nine unforced errors, and a 3-6 loss was maybe even a good result for the experienced Spaniard. Nadal played a bit better early in the second set, but that wasn't really enough.
Borges had break points early, and while he didn't use them, he got more chances a few games later and, this time around, converted them to take a 3-2 lead. A comfortable hold made it 4-2, and Nadal never threatened to get back into the match.
It was just too good of a showing by Borges, who served far better, hit the ball better, and played better overall. Nadal looked slow and tired and simply didn't have a solution.
Not being able to serve well was a huge problem because his opponent is a very aggressive player in general, and he had all the chances in the world when his opponent was serving in this match.
The final score was 6-3, 6-2 for the Portuguese player, who deservedly won the title, as Nadal hit only five winners, while he made 22 unforced errors.
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