Rafael Nadal misses ATP Rankings chance as he loses a clay final to only the fifth different player
Rafael Nadal missed the opportunity to win his first title in over two years as he fell to a convincing defeat to Nuno Borges in the 2024 Swedish Open final.
The legendary Spaniard suffered a decisive 3-6, 2-6 loss to the impressive Borges at the Nordea Open in Bastad in his first final since he won the 2022 French Open.
Nadal delivered an error-strewn performance and struggled to impose his game against the 27-year-old Portuguese, who dominated with his aggressive groundstrokes to win his first ATP title.
The 38-year-old tennis icon twice battled back after being broken in the opening set, but he was unable to recover a third time when he lost his serve to fall 2-4 behind.
The former world No 1 was then broken twice in the second set as Borges, the world No 51 and seventh seed in Bastad, surged to the finish line in his maiden tour-level final. Borges will rise nine places to a career-high ranking of world No 42 next week.
Nadal could have climbed to as high as 135th place in the rankings had he won the ATP 250 event, but he is still set for a significant jump.
Having started the week as the world No 261, Nadal is up 100 spots to 161st in the Live ATP Rankings with the 165 points earned for his run.
The 22-time Grand Slam champion was playing his 131st ATP singles final and his 72nd on clay courts. Borges has become just the fifth different player to beat Nadal in a clay-court title match.
Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Horacio Zeballos and Andy Murray are the only other men to overcome the ‘King of Clay’ on his favourite surface in a final. Nadal’s record in clay-court championship matches now stands at 63-9.
At the trophy ceremony, Nadal said: “Many congratulations to Nuno. You’ve been playing great during the whole week, so you deserve it more than anyone else here.
“Congratulations and enjoy your moment, it’s always special winning a title. I wish you all the very best for the rest of the season.
“I have been here for the week enjoying this amazing place. I really had fun on court, played some very long matches.
“Today wasn’t my best day, but all the credit to Nuno. He played very well and it was so difficult for me, so well done.”
In an on-court interview, Borges said: “I don’t know what to say. I think I was wishing for this moment for a while already.
“It’s crazy, in tennis it doesn’t happen when you expect it sometimes. I know we all wanted Rafa to win, a part of me wished that too, but something even bigger inside of me really pushed through today. Through all the emotions, through all the ups and downs.
“It wasn’t about playing my best tennis, it was just coming up in the big moments where I wanted, and I couldn’t have played better. I’m just really happy overall. I really don’t know what to say, I’m very emotional.”
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