It was a dominant victory for the American against one of the greatest ever to have ever played the game and that will give him a massive boost of confidence.
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American tennis player and eighth seed Taylor Fritz picked up a massive victory in his first ATP Finals 2022 match on Sunday when he beat former world no. 1 Rafael Nadal 7-6 (7-3), 6-1. Fritz scored eight aces and committed only one double fault in the match. His win percentage on the first serve was 80% and on the second was an incredible 88%. He returned two out of nine break points while Nadal did not have the opportunity to return even a single one. It was a dominant victory for the American against one of the greatest ever to have ever played the game and that will give him a massive boost of confidence for the rest of the year-end ATP tournament.
The Spaniard, who was seeded first, was expected to breeze through to the knockout rounds and was a huge favourite going into the match against the American. However, the former World No. 1 turned in a thoroughly uncharacteristic performance on the night, accumulating errors as the match progressed. In the end, Fritz won the competition with 22 winners and 15 unforced errors, while Nadal finished with 16 winners and 28 unforced errors.
After a hard-fought first set in which Fritz took the tiebreaker lead, the 36-year-old fell apart in the second, having his serve broken twice. Despite the Spaniard’s difficulties, Taylor Fritz put in a strong performance, not facing a single break point throughout the match. In comparison, his opponent faced nine, saving all but two.
Rafael Nadal fell to last place in the Green Group of the 2022 ATP Finals after losing to Taylor Fritz in the first round of matches. Just ahead of him is Felix Auger-Aliassime, who also lost his first game to Casper Ruud but went on to win ten games. Ruud is now second in the group with a 13-10 game win/loss record, while Fritz is the group leader with a 13-8 game win/loss record. The Spaniard now faces an uphill battle in the remaining two matches, as he will need to win both to qualify for the knockouts.
