Rafael Nadal fails to deliver victory in ATP Finals Opener
The ATP Final Tour Opener led us to a disastrous defeat of Nadal at the hands of Taylor Fritz in straight sets. Follow for more Rafael Nadal stories here!
Taylor Fritz provided a stunning debut performance to upset the top seeded 36 year-old Spanish sensation Rafael Nadal in straight sets with a score line of 7-6, 6-1 in 12 attempts. You can visit for tennis live news and updates here!
The bid of Nadal to claim his first Nitto ATP Finals title got off to rocky starts as he saw himself having struggles and later on, fell to the hands of the ATP Final debutant Fritz. This Nadal’s only prestigious title left blank for his impressive resume and a trophy in his 22 Grand Slam trophy cabinet.
The 36 year-old Spanish tennis player admitted that he was slow and rusty, the father time is maybe catching up on him, “It’s about time,” Nadal said. “I have less time than him to do what I want to do on the ball. I felt that everything was going so fast.”
With this defeat, Nadal is set to have an uphill battle as he has a couple of much needed wins against Green group opponents Casper Ruud and Felix Auger-Aliassime if he aims to book a spot in the semi-finals. His recent injuries hampered the rediscovery and reconditioning of Nadal.
“Normally I try to come back in lower events. [Normally] you don’t need to play at your best to win a couple of matches. Then if you made that happen, when you face the top players, you are more ready.” In the match, Fritz showed more aggressiveness and quickness to overwhelm Nadal in two sets. The fast pace of the game really killed the chance of the 22 Grand Slam Winner over Fritz.
“On most of the points of the match, I was in a defensive position and he was in an offensive position. That’s what happened. That’s something that was difficult to avoid for me because you need to be quicker on your legs, quicker on your minds,” he told reporters.
In this victory of Fritz, he received high praise from Nadal, as he was the first singles American to compete in ATP Final since John Isner in 2018. “We can find different ways to explain what happened, at the end [of the day], Fritz played very well. I was not able to handle his power. It’s obvious that on this kind of surface, you need to play very well. You don’t have time to think of a tactic… There is no time. Things are going so quick.”
On the other hand, Fritz who replaced the injured World No.1 Carlos Alcaraz had confidence that he did better to outlast the Spanish Legend.
“I did a good job, protecting my serve, holding my serve and I did very well in the tie-breaker,” said Fritz during the post-match. “Once I got through that I just wanted to do the same thing I was doing in the second set, protecting my serve and capitalizing on break points when I got them.”
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