Rafael Nadal comes through four-hour battle as he steps up Olympics preparation

Rafael Nadal stepped up his Olympic preparation in a successful four-hour battle with Mariano Navone to progress into the Nordea Open semi-finals and move two wins away from a first title since 2022.

The 22-time grand slam champion has not lifted silverware since his French Open triumph two years ago after a spate of injury problems, which meant he missed the majority of 2023.

Nadal has been patient with his latest comeback, playing at Roland Garros in May before he decided to skip Wimbledon to continue his clay-court season ahead of his participation at the Olympics with Spain later in July.

After straight-set wins over Leo Borg, the son of tennis great Bjorn Born, and British number two Cameron Norrie already this week in Sweden, Nadal edged out fourth seed Navone on Friday in a marathon encounter by a 6-7 (2) 7-5 7-5 score.

It represented the sternest examination of Nadal’s physical condition since his return to the ATP Tour in April, with the Spaniard able to bounce back from throwing away a 5-2 lead in the decider to clinch victory and set up a semi-final with qualifier Duje Ajdukovic in Bastad on Saturday.

Nadal said: “No, I was not focused all the time, as you saw with this 3-0 (second set) and 5-2. I lost for some moments the concentration, but I was able to hold physically until the end.

“That is so important for me. Let’s see how I am tomorrow! But today I am alive and I am in the semi-finals.”

Ajdukovic continued his fine run with a three-set victory over Brazil’s Thiago Monterio to set up a first ever meeting with Nadal.

Top seed Alexander Zverev eased through to the Hamburg Open semi-finals with a 6-4 6-3 win over Zhang Zhizhen inside 67 minutes.

Holger Rune’s involvement in the tournament ended in the last eight after he was forced to retire from his match with Arthur Fils in the second set, with the score 6-4 4-1 to the Frenchmen.

It raised concerns over Rune’s anticipated participation in the Olympic Games, with the Danish player writing on his Instagram story: “So sorry guys. My knee had caused problems since the incident in the first match. Yesterday was bad. Today I tried but it wasn’t good.”

In Switzerland at the Gstaad Open, Stefanos Tsitsipas beat Fabio Fognini in straight sets and will face Matteo Berrettini in the semi-finals.

Berrettini got the better of Felix Auger-Aliassime in two tie-breaks to continue his comeback after an injury-ravaged 2023.