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Summary:
- Portuguese Nuno Borges defeats Rafael Nadal in the Swedish Open final on Sunday.
- World no. 51 Borges has never played an ATP final before.
- Roland Garros remains Nadal’s main goal for the year.
World number 51 Nuno Borges defeated the former world number one Rafael Nadal 6-3 6-2 on Sunday and won the Swedish Open in Bastad.
This is the second final that the Spaniard who has 22 Grand Slam champion titles under his belt has lost in the last two years.
Borges Won the First Set in 46 Minutes
It only took 46 minutes for the 27-year-old, who had never played an Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) final before, to take the first set against the 38-year-old hampered by injury in the last few years.
The Portuguese then followed up by winning the next three consecutive games and sealing a prestigious career title in his first-ever match-up against the iconic player who has fallen to 261 in the rankings.
Nadal, who participated in no less than 131 ATP finals, decided to make the Paris Olympics a priority this summer, instead of playing at Wimbledon.
“I was wishing for this moment for a while already”, commented Borges, adding that a part of him wanted “Rafa to win”, just like everyone else.
However, he explained, “something even bigger inside of me really pushed through today“.
“I’m just really happy overall”, the emotional player added.
The Olympic tennis tournament in Paris will start on July 27.
Nadal: “Many Congratulations to Nuno”
Nadal, whose main goal for 2024 remains to play at Roland Garros, where he has won 14 French Open titles, was expected to win on Sunday and celebrate his 64th title on the surface as well as his first since Roland Garros 2022.
However, he was seen struggling to find fluency with his ground strokes and serve and, inevitably, he was dominated by seventh seed Borges whom he wished “many congratulations“.
“You’ve been playing great during the whole week, so you deserve it more than anyone else here”, Nadal added, while telling Borges to enjoy his moment of winning a title, which is “always special”.
Nadal said that while it wasn’t his best day, he gives “all the credit to Nuno” who “played very well” and made it difficult for him.
