Rafael Nadal will stand in the 2024 Bastad Open final, which will be a hugely important final for him as he treats the event as a very important tournament.
The Spaniard played in Bastad 19 years ago, but returning this year, he wanted to see where his tennis stands ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics, which will start next week.
That's how most saw his participation because it's difficult to recreate competitive matches in practice. He's been practicing since he lost to Alexander Zverev at Roland Garros more than a month ago, but none of that can compare to proper matches.
Coming to the Swedish city and playing some competitive matches like his match against Mariano Navone, which lasted four hours, is the type of 'practice' Nadal needs.
Even so, the 38-year-old totally rejects the notion that this event is simply a preparation event for him. Yes, there is such a thing as a preparation event, and for him, it's generally events he plays after a very long time of absence, but that's not the case with this tournament.
He didn't play for a while, but he worked hard the entire time between this week and Roland Garros, so this event was not just a preparation event for him.
Some might say that he's just showing respect to the event, but after seeing him battle for four hours out there as if it was a major final, you can kind of see what he means by 'important.'
"Honestly, I never said that it's a preparation for anything. When I'm playing tournaments, I never take a tournament like a preparation for another."
"Just when I'm coming back from a long period of injury, maybe, but I was not competing for a while, but I was practicing, so I didn't take this tournament as a preparation."
Nadal then explained why this event is important and how he sees it. It's there for him to see how far he can go after weeks and weeks of clay practice.
When he came to Sweden, the Bastad Open became everything he thought about. He's not thinking about the Olympics because that's a week away, as his focus now is to recover for the final.
"I take this tournament as an important event for me to try to play well and see how far I can go, and that's what I'm doing. The Olympics are going to be in one week, so let's see. Let's see what's going on, but today, I'm focused on trying to recover for tomorrow."
Getting there took a lot out of Nadal because, he endured a four-hour match en route to the final. Then, he had to fight back from a set down against Duje Ajdukovic, so he left a lot out there on the courts, and it's because this event is important.
Every event at this stage of his career is important because he's not playing as much as he used to.
"Every tournament that I play at this stage of my career is important because I do not play very often. So every week it's special for me. I take it that way."
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