Rafael Nadal and Casper Ruud have reached the Bastad doubles semifinal after saving a match point in a thriller win over Theo Arribage and Roman Safiullin.
Nadal and Ruud, who are playing for the first time as a pair this week, made a good start to the match but later found themselves in a real problem before saving a match point and sealing a hard-fought 6-4 3-6 12-10 win in an hour and 33 minutes of play.
Through the opening six games of the match, both pairs routinely held on to their serve as not a single break point was seen. But then in the seventh game, Nadal and Ruud finally managed to make a breakthrough – earn their first break point – and realize it for a 4-3 lead. And that one break of serve was enough for Nadal and Ruud to win the opener since they routinely served out the eighth and 10th games of the first set.
Nadal and Ruud dropped the second set but then saved a match point in the third set
After winning the first set and not facing a single break point, Nadal and Ruud made a slow start to the second set and Arribage and Safiullin used that to get their first break and a 3-0 lead.
While Nadal and Ruud managed to quickly get that break back in the fifth game, the star duo missed out on a break point in the seventh game before Arribage and Safiullin claimed another break in the eighth game to go 5-3 up. With a chance to serve out for the second set, Arribage and Safiullin didn’t crack under pressure and managed to routinely close out the set after converting their first set point.
After dropping the second set, Nadal and Ruud were able to open an early 4-2 lead and they later also led 7-5 before dropping three consecutive points that saw Arribage and Safiullin go 8-7 up.
Then a real drama happened as Nadal and Ruud won the next two points to open a 9-8 lead – but Arribage and Safiullin also won the following two points to overturn the deficit and go 10-9 up and earn their first match point.
But after coming a point away from losing the match, Nadal and Ruud stepped up and won three points in a row to complete a thriller three-set win.
In the Bastad semifinal, Nadal and Ruud play against either Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos or Pavel Kotov and Piotr Matuszewski.
