Taylor Fritz has shocked prime seed Rafa Nadal 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 to make a profitable debut on the ATP Finals in Turin.
Norway’s Casper Ruud had earlier kick-started the round-robin stage with a win over Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime.
Nadal arrived in Italy having solely competed in a single singles match since his fourth-round US Open loss two months in the past and his lack of latest competitors confirmed as he was unable to maintain tempo with Fritz because the match wore on.
“I need more matches to play at this kind of level, even if I am practising well, much better than how I am competing, without a doubt. That’s normal,” Nadal advised reporters.
“(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.”
Nadal grabbed a 6-5 lead within the opening set when he held to like for a fifth time however then misplaced the opening three factors of the tiebreaker and couldn’t discover his means again.
After neither participant dropped serve within the first set, Fritz broke early within the second for a 3-1 lead and once more to drag forward 5-1 earlier than closing out the match on his subsequent service sport when Nadal despatched a forehand lengthy.
“Once I got through that first set I just wanted to do the same thing I was doing for the second set: take care of my serve and just look to capitalise on the break points when I got them,” Fritz mentioned.
For Fritz, the victory marked his first over a top-three opponent in 12 makes an attempt and improved him to 2-2 in head-to-head conferences with Nadal having crushed him at Indian Wells in March.
Canadian Auger-Aliassime has been in elegant type on the finish of the season, profitable three tournaments in a row earlier than a semi-final run on the Paris Masters, however was not at his greatest whereas falling 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 to Ruud.
“This is some of the best level that I’ve played since the US Open,” mentioned Ruud, who reached the ultimate of the 12 months’s final grand slam in New York.
“The last couple of months have been a little bit of a struggle. You will face difficult moments in your career, and maybe these last couple of months was one of those.”
Auger-Aliassime had received 16 matches in a row to win titles in Florence, Antwerp and Basel final month.
But Ruud, a semi-finalist final 12 months, stamped his authority within the tiebreak and didn’t face a single break level within the match as he beat the Canadian for the second time this 12 months.
Australian pair Nick Kyrgios and Thanasi Kokkinakis faces Britain’s Neal Skupski and the Netherlands’ Wesley Koolhof within the doubles competitors on Monday (9.30pm AEDT).
