p After nearly two decades, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/rafael-nadal/n409/overview'Rafael Nadal/a is back in Bastad. The Spaniard on Thursday enjoyed his first practice at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/bastad/316/overview'Nordea Open/a, where he will compete next week as a wild card at the ATP 250. /p
p The former No. 1 in the PIF ATP Rankings greeted fans and hit with home #NextGenATP talent a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/ludvig-fredrik-hede/h0k7/overview'Ludvig Fredrik Hede/a in Sweden. Nadal is a former champion in Bastad, where he triumphed on his most recent appearance in 2005. /p
blockquote class="twitter-tweet"p lang="en" dir="ltr"✍️ You get an autograph, you get an autograph, everybody gets an autograph???? a href="https://t.co/hMZq4JWXPY"pic.twitter.com/hMZq4JWXPY/a/pmdash; a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/bastad/316/overview'Nordea Open/a (@NordeaOpen) a href="https://twitter.com/NordeaOpen/status/1811373621572440517?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"July 11, 2024/a/blockquote script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script
p The 38-year-old Nadal, who has stated that 2024 may be the final season of his career, will be playing his first competitive match since his first-round a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/roland-garros/520/overview'Roland Garros/a defeat to a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexander-zverev/z355/overview'Alexander Zverev/a on 27 May. He is 7-5 for the season so far, with his best result a fourth-round run on home soil in Madrid. /p
p World No. 6 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/andrey-rublev/re44/overview'Andrey Rublev/a will compete as top seed and defending champion in Bastad. World No. 8 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/casper-ruud/rh16/overview'Casper Ruud/a, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/cameron-norrie/n771/overview'Cameron Norrie/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/tallon-griekspoor/gj37/overview'Tallon Griekspoor/a also feature in the field. /p
p [NEWSLETTER FORM] /p