In the Swedish Open semi-finals, the 22-time Grand Slam champion rallied to beat Croatian qualifier Ajdukovic, 23, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Despite trailing by a set and a break at 4-6, 0-1 and trailing by a double break lead at 3-0 in the third set, Nadal managed to hold off the world No. 130.

Given that the 38-year-old defeated Mariano Navone in a four-hour quarterfinal match the day before, his triumph was an outstanding performance.

The Spaniard is continuing to build match practice in front of the 2017 Paris Olympics, and his physical comeback following his injury problems in previous years is encouraging.

On Sunday, Nadal will play in the ATP 250 tournament final against either Nuno Borges or Thiago Agustin Tirante. Along with Casper Ruud, he advanced to the doubles semifinals, but they decided not to play today.

With 165 points from his run to the championship match, Rafael Nadal has moved up 101 spots in the Live ATP Rankings, from 261st to 160th. If he wins, the former world number one may move up to 135th.

Nadal has made history by making it to his 131st ATP final and his first since the 2022 French Open. He is also the first player to have appeared in a tour-level final after 20 years apart. In January 2004, Nadal advanced to his first ATP title match in Auckland.

In his on-court interview, Rafael Nadal praised Ajdukovic’s backhand and emphasized how tough the match was.

“Very tough match; the opponent came here with a lot of confidence and had one of the best backhands that I played against,” said Rafael Nadal.

Since it was really, really hard, I believe I was attempting to push him away. However, I did manage to make it through to the final after a lengthy absence from one. That’s fantastic news, and I’m thrilled about it.

The legendary tennis player continued, saying, “It feels amazing to be back in the championship match. I won four straight matches, which I haven’t done in perhaps two years.

“The fact is that a lot of things happened. I’m still working on getting back a lot of the things I lost after having a major hip surgery over a year ago. Thus, things are not moving that smoothly.

But to get to where I am now, I had to fight the entire tournament, and I believe that games like yesterday and today help me develop a lot of things on the court. I’m happy with that, and tomorrow we’ll see if I can play a little bit better.