Clay court king Rafael Nadal makes a successful return to the ATP Tour. In Båstad, Sweden, the Spaniard is working on his form for the Olympic Games in Paris
Former world number one Rafael Nadal has successfully started the hot phase of his Olympic preparations. Around a month and a half after his first round exit at the French Open against Alexander Zverev, the 38-year-old Spaniard returned to the ATP Tour with a solid win in the doubles alongside Norwegian Casper Ruud. The duo prevailed 6:1, 6:4 against the second seeds Guido Andreozzi from Argentina and Miguel Reyes-Varela from Mexico.
Nadal skipped the grass court season around Wimbledon and is instead using the clay court tournament in southern Sweden as preparation for the Olympic Games in Paris. Physically, he feels “good, more or less okay”, he said. He has undoubtedly had a good month of training and is looking forward to playing on clay in Båstad. The fact that the Olympic tennis competition will then take place in two weeks’ time at the Stade Roland Garros – the venue of the French Open – gives him extra motivation.
At the Olympics, Nadal wants to play singles and doubles alongside Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz. The 22-time Grand Slam tournament winner has already won the gold medal in both singles (2008 in Beijing) and doubles (2016 in Rio de Janeiro with Marc Lopez) in his career.
The long-injured Nadal played his last professional match to date on May 27 at the French Open, where he lost to eventual finalist Zverev in three sets. In the singles in Båstad on Tuesday, he will first play the Swedish youngster Leo Borg – the son of former tennis star Björn Borg
