Rafael Nadal won’t be returning to the court today for his Bastad doubles match with Casper Ruud after the 38-year-old decided to withdraw from the doubles event, citing fitness concerns after back-to-back very demanding and exhausting singles matches.
A day after edging out Mariano Navone in a three-set thriller that lasted nearly four hours, Nadal endured another grueling match today after coming back from a set down to beat Duje Ajdukovic 4-6 6-3 6-4 in over two hours of play for a Bastad final spot.
After Nadal spent over six hours on the court over the last two days, the general belief and expectation was that he would probably skip his and Ruud’s doubles semifinal match versus Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos. And exactly that happened as the 38-year-old Spaniard wants to try to recover for tomorrow’s final against either Nuno Borges or Thiago Agustin Tirante.