p After 19 years, a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/rafael-nadal/n409/overview'Rafael Nadal/a is back to winning ways in Bastad. /p
p The Spaniard teamed with a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/casper-ruud/rh16/overview'Casper Ruud/a to notch a 6-1, 6-4 against second seeds a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/guido-andreozzi/a887/overview'Guido Andreozzi/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/miguel-reyes-varela/r736/overview'Miguel Reyes-Varela/a on Monday afternoon at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/bastad/316/overview'Nordea Open/a. Competing at the ATP 250 for the first time since he lifted the singles title as a 19-year-old in 2005, Nadal immediately looked at home on the Swedish clay. /p
p ldquo;Itrsquo;s a pleasure playing with a good friend and an amazing player like Casper here in Bastad,rdquo; said Nadal in the pairrsquo;s on-court interview. ldquo;Personally, I am happy and I think it was a good match. We played quite well in the first time we played together and Irsquo;m happy to be back here after almost 20 years. /p
p ldquo;I have great memories from this place from 2003, 2004 and 2005, so I am enjoying this week and hopefully can keep going.rdquo; /p
blockquote class="twitter-tweet"
p lang="et" dir="ltr"Rafa trade;️ ????a href="https://twitter.com/RafaelNadal?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@RafaelNadal/a and a href="https://twitter.com/CasperRuud98?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@CasperRuud98/a race 6-1 up on Andreozzi/Reyes-Varelaa href="https://twitter.com/NordeaOpen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"@NordeaOpen/a | a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NordeaOpen?src=hashamp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"#NordeaOpen/a a href="https://t.co/c4WWMIS4VJ"pic.twitter.com/c4WWMIS4VJ/a/p
mdash; ATP Tour (@atptour) a href="https://twitter.com/atptour/status/1812835957562859629?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"July 15, 2024/a/blockquote
script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"/script
p With both the Spaniard and Ruud striking their groundstrokes powerfully throughout, the wild card pairing powered to a 79-minute win that was twice interrupted by passing rain showers. It converted four of 10 break points it earned in the process, according to Infosys ATP Stats. The 22-time major champion Nadal and the No. 9 in the PIF ATP Rankings Ruud will take on a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/mariano-navone/n0bs/overview'Mariano Navone/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/cameron-norrie/n771/overview'Cameron Norrie/a or a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/theo-arribage/a0e5/overview'Theo Arribage/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/roman-safiullin/sx50/overview'Roman Safiullin/a in the second round. /p
p ldquo;Like Rafa said, I think it was a good match. When it comes to the rain delays, Irsquo;m used to it more than Rafa, being from Norway and he is from Spain,rdquo; said Ruud, before light-heartedly adding: ldquo;He is getting old so Irsquo;m not sure how his body feels when he has to stop and start all the time, but he did well. We played good doubles and it was a lot of fun to share the court with Rafa as always.rdquo; /p
p Mondayrsquo;s victory was Nadalrsquo;s first competitive match since he fell to a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/alexander-zverev/z355/overview'Alexander Zverev/a on 27 May in the opening round at a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/roland-garros/520/overview'Roland Garros/a. The 22-time Grand Slam champion will take on a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/leo-borg/b0jg/overview'Leo Borg/a, son of ATP legend a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/bjorn-borg/b058/overview'Bjorn Borg/a, in his opening singles match /p
pIn singles action, former World No. 8 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/cameron-norrie/n771/overview'Cameron Norrie/a got on court much later than expected following the rain delays but made a successful transition from grass to clay with a 7-6(4), 6-4 win over Slovakian World No. 102 a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/jozef-kovalik/kc04/overview'Jozef Kovalik/a. Norrie will play the winner of Nadal and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/leo-borg/b0jg/overview'Leo Borg/a in the second round./p
p
"I was a bit nervous at the beginning, having not played a bunch on clay coming straight from a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/wimbledon/540/overview'Wimbledon/a,rdquo; Norrie said after collecting his 17th match win on the season. ldquo;It was not easy but I thought I managed my serve really well and competed really well. I served unbelievable in the tie-break and that helped to get me through. /p
p
"It's a beautiful place here in Bastad, it's my first time here. I went for a walk before my match today and jumped in the water yesterday and tried to avoid some jellyfish. It's a very chill and a very cool place to come and visit. I feel pretty relaxed." /p
p/p
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pIn the only other main-draw singles match played Monday, eighth seed a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/pavel-kotov/k09f/overview'Pavel Kotov/a ousted Chilean a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/cristian-garin/gd64/overview'Cristian Garin/a 6-4, 6-7, 6-1 after saving four of the five break points he faced./p
p [NEWSLETTER FORM] /p
