Nadal Advances to Swedish Open Semifinal

Former world’s number one Rafael Nadal came through a three-hour-and-58-minute marathon to reach his first semi-final of the year, coming from behind to defeat Argentine Mariano Navone at the Swedish Open.

The 38-year-old Nadal, knocked out the fourth seed 6-7 (2-7) 7-5 7-5 to set up a meeting with Croatia’s Duje Ajdukovic for a place in the final.

The Spaniard is also due to play with Casper Ruud in the doubles semi-finals against Brazil’s Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos as he prepares to partner Carlos Alcaraz at the Olympics in Paris.

Some brilliant tennis between the two forced a first-set tie-break, where the Argentine powered his way into the lead.

After breaking twice in the second set to lead 3-0, Nadal then lost four games in a row as his level dropped dramatically.

Nadal broke again to make it 6-5 and was then able to hold his nerve to level the match.

The 22-time Grand Slam winner failed when serving for the match at the first attempt, but closed out the tie at the second time of asking.

“First of all, I’m looking forward to the afternoon and trying to recover this body,” said Nadal.

“Even if it’s a young body, I would need to work and recover once and for all. I will see how I wake up tomorrow.”