Nuno Borges admits it is a “dream come true” after booking a place against Rafael Nadal at the Nordea Open final

Rafael Nadal is into his 131st final and 72nd on clay at the Nordea Open.

Nuno Borges admits it is a “dream come true” after booking a place against Rafael Nadal at the Nordea Open final

Nuno Borges and Rafael Nadal (Via Imago)

Nuno Borges has booked a place in the final of the Nordea Open after beating Argentina’s Thiago Agustin Tirante in straight sets. The Bastad final will be the Portuguese’s maiden ATP final, and a dream come true when he faces Rafael Nadal tomorrow.

Borges arrived at the tournament with no win since June. The last time the youngster had a good spell of victories was at the Italian Open, where he reached the round of 16. However, he has won one title this season, at the ATP Challenger in Phoenix, beating Matteo Berrettini in the final.

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The 27-year-old who began playing college tennis at Mississippi in the US has won four consecutive tour-level matches. He defeated Andrea Pellegrino yesterday before beating Agustin Tirante 6-3, 6-4 at the Bastad Tennis Stadium. He will face an in-form Nadal, who is relishing his first title since the 2022 French Open.

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Ahead of the final on Sunday, the Portuguese ace revealed that sharing the court with Nadal is a dream come true and looks forward to enjoying it.

The crowd is great; the atmosphere is great. They helped me fight my demons.– It’s all very emotional. Sharing the court with Rafael Nadal, especially in the final, is a dream come true. I’ll try to enjoy it as much as I can, while trying to be competitive and give myself the means to win.

Nuno Borges said during his on-court interview.

It will be the first meeting between Borges and Nadal on the ATP tour. Borges has lacked depth in his game this season, but will be hoping that the Spaniard’s legs grow tired as the match progresses.

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Rafael Nadal(L), Nuno Borges(R)

Rafael Nadal excited to dig deep for his first title of the season at the Nordea Open

Rafael Nadal has revealed that he will keep fighting after beating Duje Ajdukovic in three sets to reach his first final in two years. It will also be the Spaniard’s 131st tour-level final and 72nd on clay. The 38-year-old is on a nine-match winning streak at the Nordea Open, since 2005.

Rafael Nadal Bastad
Rafael Nadal (via Imago)

He took his record for this season to 11- 5, winning four consecutive games in Bastad for the first time since this year.

It is always a good feeling to get back into a final. I'm still in this process of recovering a lot of things that I lost because I had an important hip surgery almost a year ago. Things are not going that easy but I am fighting.
Rafael Nadal said via BBC.

Nadal is the favorite to lift the Bastad title tomorrow because of his experience on clay. However, the 22-time Grand Slam winner has played over six hours of tennis in the past two days and might suffer fatigue while playing against Nuno Borges.

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