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Rafael Nadal went back to playing tennis on Monday. He joined up with Casper Ruud to win a doubles match in Bastad. This was the first time Nadal played since he lost to Alexander Zverev in the French Open’s first round on May 27. Nadal, who’s 38, is getting ready for the Olympics in Paris.
Nadal and Ruud 25, beat Guido Andreozzi from Argentina and Miguel Reyes-Varela from Mexico 6-1, 6-4. The second seeds lost to the wild card entries in a match on clay that rain kept stopping. Nadal and Ruud, who practiced together at Nadal’s Academy in Mallorca, felt at home on the Swedish clay. They won the first set breaking serve twice.
Rain paused the game two times first when the score was 3-3 in the second set. But Nadal and Ruud finished the job in 79 minutes.
“We played good for our first time as a team,” Nadal said. “It’s awesome to be back after almost 20 years. I’ve got nice memories from 2003 2004, and 2005. I’m having fun this week and hope it keeps going.”
Nadal grabbed the singles crown in Bastad when he was 19 back in 2005. He didn’t go to Wimbledon this month to get ready for the Olympics, which will happen at Roland Garros where he’s won the French Open 14 times. In Paris, Nadal wants to play in singles and doubles with Carlos Alcaraz, who just won Wimbledon.
“Spanish sports had a killer day,” Nadal said talking about Alcaraz winning and Spain grabbing the Euro 2024 title. “The Spanish team killed it in the Euro Cup. We’re super proud of them. And it was awesome to see Carlos take Wimbledon.”
The guy who’s won 22 Grand Slams is gonna play singles too going up against Leo Borg, the 21-year-old kid of Bjorn Borg, who used to be the world’s top player.
Ruud said, “Rafa played well, and our doubles match was good. It’s always fun to be on the court with him. I’m used to rain delays since I’m from Norway,” he kidded about Nadal getting older. “He’s not as young as he used to be so I don’t know how his body deals with stopping and starting again.”
Leo Borg, who’s now ranked 467th in the world, didn’t win his doubles match on Monday.
