Rafael Nadal returns to action with victory over Leo Borg at Nordea Open

While on paper this match may have looked distinctly non-descript, a between the world No 261 and a wildcard sitting all the way down at No 461, it was in actual fact an intriguing inter-generational prospect.

Borg, son of six-time Roland-Garros champion Bjorn, would have been well aware that he was playing the man who broke his father’s record at the French Open. Those six title wins on the Parisian clay stood as the most won by a male player until 2012, when Nadal – in the peak of his dominance at Roland-Garros – won his seventh title there.

The match itself was an uneventful affair, with Nadal earning a single break in each set for a comfortable straight-sets win.

More interesting was the manner in which the Spaniard was moving and playing, having not been in competitive singles action since the end of May. Having opted to miss Wimbledon in order to prioritise his physical health with hopes of competing in the Paris Olympics at the end of this month, Nadal entered the clay-court tournament in Bastad as a warm-up event in preparation for the Games.

While he will be given sterner tests of his physicality in matches to come, the signs looked promising for the 22-time Grand Slam champion, who moved well and was in impressive form.

Nadal’s 2024 campaign has been severely hampered by injury, with hip and abdominal issues hindering his long-awaited comeback from an 11-month injury lay-off which decimated his season last year.

In May 2023, the Spaniard announced that this year was likely to be his last on tour, although he has repeatedly stressed that he could not commit to a definite retirement date and would not rule out extending his farewell tour into next season.

After Roland-Garros, the Olympics was the next big target for Nadal, having won a gold medal for Spain in 2008. He will play in both the singles and the doubles alongside recent Wimbledon champion and compatriot Carlos Alcaraz.

So far, the decision to skip Wimbledon to continue practising on clay and avoid a jarring rapid change of surfaces looks to have been a sensible one.

But there will be a significant step up in quality for him in the next round. He will face fifth-seeded Cameron Norrie in the last 16 as his preparations for the Olympics begin to ramp up.