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Rafael Nadal came through a three-hour-and-58-minute marathon to reach his first semi-final of the year, coming from behind to defeat Argentine Mariano Navone at the Swedish Open.<\/b><\/p>\n
Nadal, 38, knocked out the fourth seed 6-7 (2-7) 7-5 7-5 to set up a meeting with Croatia’s Duje Ajdukovic for a place in the final.<\/p>\n
The Spaniard is also due to play with Casper Ruud in the doubles semi-finals against Brazil’s Orlando Luz and Rafael Matos as he prepares to partner Carlos Alcaraz at the Olympics<\/a> in Paris.<\/p>\n Some brilliant tennis between the two forced a first-set tie-break, where the Argentine powered his way into the lead.<\/p>\n After breaking twice in the second set to lead 3-0, Nadal then lost four games in a row as his level dropped dramatically.<\/p>\n Nadal broke again to make it 6-5 and was then able to hold his nerve to level the match.<\/p>\n The 22-time Grand Slam winner failed when serving for the match at the first attempt, but closed out the tie at the second time of asking.<\/p>\n “First of all, I’m looking forward to the afternoon and trying to recover this body,” said Nadal.<\/p>\n “Even if it’s a young body, I would need to work and recover once and for all. I will see how I wake up tomorrow.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n