Among the many remarkable statistics associated with Rafael Nadal’s career, one of the more startling is that only two of his 92 titles have been won indoors. Nadal has made himself at home at almost every major stop on the ATP Tour, but clearly the 22-time grand slam champion does not much care for having a roof over his head.
The pattern continued at the ATP Finals in Turin, where Nadal opened his challenge with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 defeat against Taylor Fritz, the American eighth seed, that complicates both his hopes of advancing from Green Group and his prospects of ending the year as world No 1.
Beaten by Frances Tiafoe at the US Open and Tommy Paul at the Paris Masters, Nadal has now lost three consecutive matches for the first time since 2009. After starting the season in fairy-tale fashion with victories at the Australian Open and Roland Garros, he is slowing rapidly as the finish line nears.
Historically, Nadal has had his share of struggles against big-serving, flat-hitting opponents. Fritz, who defeated the Spaniard in the Indian Wells final in March and extended him to a fifth set at Wimbledon, fits the bill perfectly. Nadal’s difficulties were compounded by the quick conditions, the fast surface nullifying the potency of his heavy topspin while playing to Fritz’s strengths.
“There’s so many variables,” mused Fritz, who qualified for the finals at the 11th hour after the withdrawal of the injured Carlos Alcaraz. “This is a fast court. All it takes is one service game where I miss some first serves, he plays some good points, maybe I make some mistakes, I get broken. That could be the set.
“I definitely didn’t come out thinking that I was the favourite by any means, because just with how the surface is, the littlest thing can get you broken and lose the match. But I did feel if I took care of my serve and took care and returned well at times, found looks to break him, I felt like I had a really good chance of winning.”
So it proved. Fritz’s attacking intent was clear from the outset, the big Californian clambering all over Nadal’s second serve and frequently painting the lines with his powerful groundstrokes. Fritz fashioned a break point as early as the third game, in which Nadal held only after an eight-minute battle, and the Spaniard was forced to fend off two more in the seventh.
When Nadal angled away a stunning backhand overhead after chasing down a net cord with Fritz serving at 5-6, it had the feel of a turning point. Instead, Fritz snuffed out the danger with some clinical serving, capitalised on a Nadal double fault at the start of the tiebreak to establish a 3-0 lead, and nipped an attempted fightback in the bud with a deceptively pacy forehand at 3-2. He would not be caught.
By the early stages of the second set Nadal, to his evident dismay, was missing regulation sliced backhands; by the latter stages, as he cast quizzical glares at the surface ever more frequently, the Spaniard looked bereft of ideas.
“I felt that everything was going so fast,” said Nadal. “When that happens, normally you are under stress and you don’t have the time to play the kind of shot that you want. In most of the points of the match, I was in a defensive position and he was in an offensive position.
“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, because you can’t have a tactic in terms of going back, playing different way. There is no time. Things are going so quick.
“Serving like Fritz served, then you are under pressure all the time, no? When somebody is serving that way, on the return he is going for every shot.”
Some context is necessary, of course. The second half of Nadal’s season has been marred by the abdominal tear that forced him to withdraw from the Wimbledon semi-finals – and which, he revealed a couple of days ago, recurred on the eve of the US Open – while last month he became a father for the first time. That his return has coincided the period of the season he finds most challenging, against high-quality opposition and with little tennis under his belt, has only compounded his difficulties.
“I need more matches to play at this kind of level – even if I am practising well, much better than how I am competing,” said Nadal, who must now win a maiden title at the finals if he is to dethrone Carlos Alcaraz as world No 1.
“At the end, it is not the ideal tournament – and probably part of the season – to come back after a couple of months without being on the tour, because you don’t have time to get confidence.
“[From] the beginning, you have a very tough opponent in front [of you], on a surface [where] very small details make the difference. These small details probably go the way of the player who [has] better confidence.”
While Nadal will look to be more punctilious against Felix Auger-Aliassime on Tuesday, Fritz will face Casper Ruud, who ran out a 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 winner against the Canadian in the day’s opening match.