The Swedish summer sun continued to shine even brighter on the next two pairs of tennis players in Båstad. The wildcard pair of Spain’s Rafael Nadal and Norway’s Casper Ruud faced the experienced Roman Safuillin and his French partner Theo Arribage. 

The match opened with Roman Safuillin’s first serve getting a long check by the sharp eyes of Rafael Nadal. The pair, as if inspired by that check, began looking dangerous as they broke Nadal early in the first set. However, the Spanish legend and his Norwegian prodigy were even more inspired as they broke back quickly to lead 5-4. To bring up set point, Ruud and Nadal fought a tightly contested point, one that defines the speed and dexterity of doubles tennis. After winning the point with a forehand winner straight up the centre of the court, Ruud gestured to his Nordic compatriots to give him some love, and he received it in troves. 

Set two was all about exchanging breaks of serve. It opened with the Safuillin-Arribage playing aggressively and pushing their opponents back on the baseline. Their tactics worked well and they broke Nadal’s opening game to lead 3-0. Nadal-Ruud broke back and levelled the set 3-3. However, they couldn’t consolidate that break and conceded 3-6. 

A 10-point match tiebreak ensued with Nadal opening the proceedings. A crucial net cord clip gave Ruud/Nadal an early lead and a very tightly fought tiebreak came to a roaring end at 12-10. Fortune favours the brave and the wildcard pair truly dug deep to hold off the force that were Arribage/Safuillin in a match that lasted 1 hour 33 minutes. 

At the post match ceremony, Ruud joked, “When you can’t win singles, you have to win doubles.” Nadal expressed he had fun and he thanked the full crowd for a fantastic turn out for doubles. When asked about his team moniker “Ruudal”, Nadal said “We have Fedal, now we have Ruudal!” to the cheering crowd. 

The pair move on to the semi-finals where they will meet the winners of Kotov/Matuszewski and the Brazilian pair Luz/Matos.