Nadal Ruud save MP, reach Bastad SFs with classy doubles win

pa href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/rafael-nadal/n409/overview'Rafael Nadal/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/casper-ruud/rh16/overview'Casper Ruud/a are giving the fans what they want at the a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/tournaments/bastad/316/overview'Nordea Open/a, and the show will go on in Bastad after the popular doubles team escaped a dramatic quarter-final match on Wednesday./p

pThe Spanish-Norwegian duo pulled out a 6-4, 3-6, 12-10 victory against a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/theo-arribage/a0e5/overview'Theo Arribage/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/roman-safiullin/sx50/overview'Roman Safiullin/a, saving a match point at 9/10 in the Match Tie-break before winning three straight points to close out the result. A backhand volley winner from Nadal put an exclamation point on a quality final exchange that was emblematic of the level of the match as a whole./p

p"I think we had some fun," Nadal said. "It has been an emotional match at the end, a good level of tennis against two good players. We enjoy it and the crowd was amazing, a full crowd in a doubles match, that's fantastic. Just enjoying every single day here."/p

pnbsp;/p

div style="position: relative; display: block; max-width: 100%;"

div style="padding-top: 56.25%;"

iframe src="https://players.brightcove.net/6057277721001/8gZSNwgH_default/index.html?videoId=6358297172112" allow="encrypted-media" style="position: absolute; top: 0px; right: 0px; bottom: 0px; left: 0px; width: 100%; height: 100%;"/iframe

/div

/div

pThe pair dominated on second serve in the victory, winning 63 per cent (12/19) of those points, according to Infosys ATP Stats. Both teams broke serve twice./p

p"When you cannot win singles you have to try to win doubles," joked Ruud, who lost his opening singles match 6-3, 6-3 to a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/thiago-monteiro/mj08/overview'Thiago Monteiro/a earlier on Wednesday. "It was not the best beginning of the day but a very nice way to finish the day for me.br /

br /

"Winning alongside Rafa was a special doubles today. We saved a match point so a bit lucky, and we look forward to the next match."/p

pAfter beating second seeds a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/guido-andreozzi/a887/overview'Guido Andreozzi/a and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/miguel-reyes-varela/r736/overview'Miguel Reyes-Varela/a 6-1, 6-4 in the first round, "Ruudal" could face third-seeded Brazilians Orland Luz and a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/rafael-matos/mo41/overview'Rafael Matos/a in the semis./p

pAsked about that team nickname, Nadal approved: "I have Fedal, and now Ruudal... so both!" he said with a laugh. Nadal will also join forces with fellow Spaniard a href='https://www.atptour.com/en/players/carlos-alcaraz/a0e2/overview'Carlos Alcaraz/a at the Paris Olympics later this month./p