Taylor Fritz got revenge over Rafael Nadal as he defeated the top seed at the ATP Finals 7-6(3) 6-1 on his debut. It comes after the American suffered heartbreak in their Wimbledon quarter-final, going down in five sets. It marked the first time in 13 years that Nadal suffered three-successive losses and also put a dent in his hopes of securing the year-end No 1 ranking, with the Spaniard in a three-man race for the top spot with Carlos Alcaraz and Stefanos Tsitsipas.
Nadal and Fritz stepped onto the court for their third meeting of the season after splitting their first two matches. It was a debut in Turin for both men as the top seed missed the tournament’s inaugural year at the ATP Finals while the American was playing the event for the first time.
The top seed was the first man forced to fend off a break point in the third game of the match and saved two more for a 4-3 lead but was unable to threaten the Fritz serve throughout the opening set as it was taken to a tiebreak. Nadal started with a tiebreak to give the world No 9 an immediate advantage and continued to spray errors, losing the set 7-6(3) after 58 minutes.
The debutant outclassed Nadal in the opener, hitting 15 winners to 10 unforced errors while the 22-time Grand Slam champion managed a ratio of 11 to 12. And Fritz continued to apply pressure on Nadal as he held to open the second set, keeping his nose in front of the world No 2.
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