Rafael Nadal produced a 6-4 6-4 win over British tennis star Cameron Norrie at the Swedish Open on Thursday as he gears up for his last Olympic Games.
The 38-year-old icon is set to play the Olympics for the final time before he enters retirement, with the action getting underway on July 27 on the clay courts in Paris.
Nadal has somewhat delayed plans to hang up his racket, though, after being named on the US Open entry list, with some tipping him to continue into 2025.
It was thought that the ‘King of Clay’ was playing at his beloved tournament – the French Open – for the last time in 2024 before calling time on his stunning career.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion has since made a U-turn, though, which forced Roland-Garros organisers to cancel a farewell ceremony after his first-round exit.
Nadal took some time away from the ATP Tour after that crushing defeat, deciding to skip Wimbledon as he did not want to transition to grass and then back to clay.
The veteran played his first singles match in over seven weeks on Tuesday as he beat Bjorn Borg’s son at the clay-court Swedish Open in Bastad.
Nadal has now followed that up with a key victory over Britain’s Norrie, who was Wimbledon semi-finalist two years ago, to reach the Swedish Open quarter-finals.
‘Great feelings,’ Nadal said in his on-court interview after reaching his first quarter-final on clay since the 2022 French Open.
‘It’s been a while without playing on Tour… since Roland-Garros. To have the chance to compete well against a great player like Cameron… these are great feelings. I played, for moments, good tennis.
‘For moments I needed to play more aggressive. That’s part of the journey today. I haven’t been competing very often. Matches and victories like today help to be in rhythm the whole match and put the pressure on the opponent during the whole match. That’s something I need to improve today. Because I haven’t played enough.’
The duo cruised through the first six games without a sniff of a break point before Nadal impressively conjured up the first three opportunities in a long game seven.
Norrie managed to save two of them – but Nadal simply refused to give up – and eventually got the job done after deuce as his opponent’s shot landed just wide.
Nadal then dominantly held to love, moving 5-3 ahead in the first set with 37 minutes on the clock, much to the delight of the fans on a packed-out court.
Norrie managed to avoid a double break and he then forced Nadal to save two break points himself in game 10 but the Spaniard held his nerve to take it 6-4 on serve with his second set point.
Nadal clocked up a chance to break Norrie again in the very first game of the second set as he looked to wrap things up quickly but the Brit just about saved it.
It appeared to firmly put the fire back in Norrie’s belly as he moved ahead in the second set with a crucial break to lead 3-1 and then saved a break point for 4-1.
But that only brought out the very best of Nadal, who held and then remarkably broke to love to firmly live up to his reputation of being king of the clay courts.
Nadal won his third game in a row to level up the second set 4-4, before conjuring up one last break-and-hold combo to win 6-4 6-4.