From Fedal to Rudal: Rafael Nadal and Casper Ruud continue doubles tandem, reach Bastad Open semi-finals

Rafael Nadal and Casper Ruud continue their winning doubles tandem. They have reached the Bastad Open doubles semi-final after saving a match point in a thrilling win over Theo Arribage and Roman Safiullin.

Nadal and Ruud who are playing for the first time as a pair this week made a great start to the contest but nearly found themselves out of the tournament. In the end, they sealed a 6-4, 3-6, 12-10 win in an hour and 33 minutes of action.

Through the opening six games, both routinely held onto their serve with not a single break point completed. But in the seventh game, Ruud and Nadal managed a breakthrough. They earned their first break point and sealed a 4-3 lead. That one break of serve was enough to win the opener. They served out the eighth and 10th games of the first set.

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After winning the first set, they made a poor start to the second as Arribage and Safiullin broke to lead the tie. Nadal and Ruud managed to quickly get the break back in the fifth game. However they missed out on a break point in the seventh game before their opponents served up to go 5-3 up. They converted their first set point and sent it the distance.

After dropping the second set, Nadal and Ruud opened up a 4-2 lead and they also led 7-5 before dropping consecutive points that saw their opponents go 8-7 up in the deciding tie-break. Nadal and Ruud won the next two points to open up a 9-8 lead but their opponents led 10-9 earning their first match point. But they stepped up and won three points to complete a three-set win. They now play Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos or Pavel Kotov and Piotr Matuszewski in the semi-finals with Nadal still in the singles. Thiago Monteiro stunned Ruud on the other hand.

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