Successful baptism of fire for Taylor Fritz at the ATP Finals. The American, starter in the tournament following the withdrawal of world No. 1 Carlos Alcaraz, took full advantage of the situation and won with style against Rafael Nadal in two sets (7-6, 6-1) to lead the green group.
ATP Paris
Nadal is already taking the door
11/02/2022 At 10:55 PM
Solid in service and exchange, the 9th in the world made the difference in a decisive tie-break, after a very tight first set. Once in front of the score, Fritz unrolled, leaving behind a Nadal who seemed physically damaged, quickly committing the fault in the exchange and twice giving up his face-off.
Nadal cracked and Fritz can raise his arms: the American’s match point on video
A decisive tie-break
This match will therefore have revolved around this crucial decisive game of the first set. Before that, Fritz had been the most threatening on the return, getting three break points in all. But Nadal, perfectly in the game, showed a surprising quality of service (7 aces, 71% first ball) to keep control of the set until the tie-break.
The Spaniard even offered the point of the match, 6-5 for him, on a superb short crossed backhand smash with his back to the net. But he sabotaged himself in the process by committing his first double fault of the tie-break opening match, giving a crippling advantage to his opponent who remained solid to pocket the set.
Nadal still physically short
At the start of the second set, Nadal tried to be aggressive on the return, but ran into a confident Fritz, exploiting the fast conditions in Turin perfectly to rob the Spaniard of forehand time. And, as at Bercy against Tommy Paul in the third set, the Spaniard quickly showed signs of fatigue in the exchange, committing more and more unforced errors, faster and faster.
Faced with a sharp Fritz on the return, Nadal continued to search for solutions. But he forced his shots, yielding his face-off once on an unforced forehand fault, then a second time, after the longest game of the match, on … a double fault.
Rafael Nadal
Credit: Getty Images
ATP Paris
Simon, that’s crazy!
11/02/2022 At 7:48 PM
ATP Paris
Thursday’s program: Alcaraz, Simon and Djokovic during the day
02/11/2022 At 19:10