The King of Clay, Rafael Nadal has been confirmed to play at the Nordea Open ATP 250 event in Båstad, Sweden in mid July.
“I have great memories from there and really look forward to coming back”, was the comment from Nadal on the tournament’s website.
Nadal is given a wild card for the tournament and is unseeded, which means that he will play his first match already on Monday or Tuesday (July 15-16). He’s joining an impressive field of players in Båstad, where world number one Jannik Sinner, Andrey Rublev and Casper Ruud are among the opponents.
Nadal v Sinner?
Tickets for the competition have been unusually sought after, since it became clear that Jannik Sinner would come to Båstad, and with this news of Nadal the organisers expect a rush for tickets for the Swedish ATP event.
“… among the biggest that has happened to this tournament,” commented tournament CEO Christer Hult.
The organisers are already dreaming of a possible final between Nadal and Sinner, even though they might face each other much earlier, depending on the draw.
“A dream would be to see them in a final, even if world number five Casper Ruud or world number six Andrej Rublev might be possible finalists as well,” continues Christer Hult.
Perfect preparation for the Olympics
As we reported earlier, Nadal is preparing for the Paris Olympics later in the summer and will play both singles and the doubles event together with Carlos Alcaraz.
As the Spaniard is not willing to quickly shift back from grass to clay, he has decided to skip the Wimbledon tournament this year. This means Nordea Open will be an ideal Olympics preparation.
The 38-year-old Spanish legend played here when he was 19 years old, and won the tournament, when he beat Tomas Berdych in the final. The organisers have since then tried to get him to come back but since he always goes far in the Wimbledon championships, it just haven’t been possible, until now…
The Båstad ATP event is being played between 15-21 July.
