Rafael Nadal Walks To The Bastad Final After Three Sets Against Ajdukovic

JAKARTA - Tennis player Rafael Nadal has finally returned to his first final since winning the French Open 2022. Spanish athlete overthrowed Croatian Duje Ajdukovic in a three-set battle at Bastad, Saturday, July 20.

The day after his four-hour win in the quarter-finals, the 22-time Grand Slam champion was again tested by Ajdokovic, the world's 130-ranked tennis player who had just won two touring tiers before this week.

Nadal came from defeat in the opening set to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, and return to the tournament final he won as a teenager in his last appearance in 2005.

"It was a very difficult match. Honestly, it was very difficult, but I found a way to survive and qualify for the final after a long time not being in the final, so that's good news and I'm very happy with that," Nadal said, as broadcast by AFP via ANTARA.

The 38-year-old will face Portugal's seventh seed Nuno Borges, who defeated Argentine Thiago Agustin Tirante 6-3, 6-4, as he sought a 93rd single title in his career.

His last win came two years ago at Roland Garros, when he won the tournament for the 14th time.

"It's always nice to be back in the final. I won four games in a row, something I haven't been able to achieve since two years ago," said Nadal, whose ranking fell to 261 after a series of injuries.

"A lot of things have happened... I'm still in the process of recovering a lot of things that are missing because I had very important hip surgery almost a year ago, so things don't go that easy."

"But I struggled. I have struggled throughout the tournament to be in my current position. Matches like yesterday and today helped improve a lot on the pitch, so I'm happy with that. Let's see if I can survive," said the Spaniard.

Nadal struggled at the start of the game against 23-year-old Ajdokovic when he lost 3-0 and broke twice on the opening set, but he bounced back with two breaks in the second set after another bad start.

The former world number one appeared with complete control in the third set when he was 3-0 up, but had to lose his serve twice in a row, repeating a similar mistake in the previous round.

He broke again in the seventh game and then held back two more break points in the next game. He finally secured victory with comfortable control in two games later.

Nadal used the event at Bastad as preparation for the Olympics, where tennis will be played on the Roland Garros clay field. He won gold in a single in Beijing in 2008 and gold in doubles at Rio in 2016.

He just returned to action this week for the first time since losing in the first round of the French Open at the end of last May.

Nadal was also scheduled to play in doubles on Saturday night with Nepal Ruud but announced he was stepping down as a precaution after spending six hours on the pitch during his last two singles games.