Turin, November 14 (BNA): Taylor Fritz stunned Rafa Nadal 7-6 (3), 6-1 to claim his first victory in the ATP Finals in Turin, while Norway’s Casper Ruud started the first round stage earlier on Sunday. Victory over Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Spain’s top seed Nadal has arrived in Italy after playing only a singles match since his fourth-round loss at the US Open two months ago, and his lack of recent competition showed his inability to keep pace with Fritz as the match went on, Reuters reported.
“I need more matches to play at this level, even if I’m training well, much better than my way of competing, without a doubt. That’s normal,” Nadal told reporters.
“At the end of the day it’s not the perfect tournament and maybe you’ll be part of the season to come back in a couple of months without being on the Tour because you don’t have time to gain confidence.”
Nadal snatched a 6-5 lead in the opening set when he held onto the love for the fifth time but then lost the opening three points of the tiebreak and couldn’t come back.
After none of the players dropped his serve in the first set, Fritz broke early in the second set to lead 3-1 and then lead again 5-1 before wrapping up the match on his next serve match when Nadal sent in a long forehand.
“Once I got past the first set, I just wanted to do the same thing I was doing for the second set: take care of the serve and just look to take advantage of the break points when I got them,” Fritz said in his following statement. Court interview.
“I knew going out here would be a big match if I wanted to get out of the group, it’s a really important match.”
For Fritz, this victory was his first over a top-three opponent in 12 attempts and improved to 2-2 in head-to-head encounters with Nadal after he defeated him at Indian Wells in March.
Canadian Auger-Aliassime was in great shape towards the end of the season, winning three consecutive tournaments before the semi-final round at the Paris Masters, but was not at his best as he fell 7-6 (4) 6-4 to Ruud.
Although he netted 26 winners at the expense of world number four Rudd, he made up for 26 unforced errors as the Norwegian finished off the win to join the green group, which also includes Nadal and Fritz.
“I think this is one of the best levels I’ve played since the US Open,” said Rudd, who reached the Grand Slam final last year in New York.
“The last two months have been a bit of a struggle, I have to say that honestly, but you have to accept it too. You will have difficult moments in your career, and maybe the last two months was one of those.”
Auger-Aliassime won 16 games in a row to win titles in Florence, Antwerp and Basel last month.
But Rudd, who reached the semi-finals last year, sealed his authority in the tiebreak and did not face a single break point in the match as he beat the Canadian for the second time this year.