Rafael Nadal is set to compete at the Paris Olympics aiming for his third gold medal, but he acknowledged that his performance in the Bastad clay-court final on Sunday was far below his usual standard. The 38-year-old Spanish tennis legend suffered a straight-sets loss to Portuguese player Nuno Borges in his first final since winning his 14th French Open in 2022.
"The level was so far from what it should be. Probably the energy too," Nadal remarked. "It has been a long week with long matches. Even if my body, I don't have damage, that's important - but mentally and physically, I am not used to playing four days in a row and playing long matches." This was Nadal's first tournament since his early exit at the French Open in May.
He opted out of Wimbledon to concentrate on his clay-court skills in preparation for the Olympics, which are being held at Roland Garros, the venue of his 14 Grand Slam victories. At the Games, Nadal hopes to build on his singles gold from the 2008 Beijing Olympics and his doubles win at Rio in 2016. In Paris, he will also partner with French Open and Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz.
"I played the final, that's positive. I was able to play long matches without having an injury, that's good," Nadal reflected on his week in Sweden. Despite playing only six tournaments in 2024 due to injuries, his ranking has fallen to 261.
"In some way I felt that I arrived here practising much better than what I played on the tournament during the whole week. That's something that I am not satisfied with," he explained. "I arrived here with the feeling that I was playing a good level and I was not able to show that during the whole week. That is something that I am not happy with."
Anyway it's a final, so I can't say it's a bad result because it's the first final since a long time ago. But I was not able to feel myself comfortable enough during the whole week to be satisfied with the week of tennis that I played.
