​Remaining the heavy favorite after the end of Carlos Alcaraz, Rafael Nadal started the 2022 Champions Tour with a left hand, the Iberian was defeated by Taylor Fritz.

Rafael Nadal defeats Taylor Fritz on the Champions Tour 2022

Having played just one official match since the US Open (a loss to Tommy Paul at the Paris Masters), Nadal clearly showed that he is far from the physical form he was in this season (he still won the 2022 Australian Open and Roland Garros).

Rafa hung close to Fritz in the first set to a tiebreak, but his serve betrayed him late in the set. The American won 7-3.

In the second set, the differences were even greater: Taylor served flawlessly and constantly pressured Rafa from the return.

Fritz won clearly, 6-1, and secured an important victory in the 2022 Tournament of Champions.

Despite the fact that he is the main favorite to win the trophy based on his ranking, Nadal is not recognized as a good indoor hard player, and he has never won a Champions Tour in his career (he has two finals, losing to Federer and Djokovic).

How Nadal explains the loss to Fritz

“I had a lot less time than him to do what I wanted with the ball. I felt like everything was moving so fast. Normally I would try to go back to the smaller tournaments, you have to win a few matches to come back to the top after a period of absence.

So when you meet the top players, you feel prepared, you have more confidence. Unfortunately, it didn’t work,” Rafael Nadal was quoted as saying at the press conference after the match by Eurosport.

“Most of the moments in the match I was in a defensive position. It was hard to avoid it because I needed to be faster, faster, but I couldn’t.

This is an indoor game, you have to think fast and move accordingly. But apart from my problems, Fritz played well, had more power in his shots, moved better.

He served well and kept me under constant pressure. He played very well and I congratulate him,” concluded Rafael Nadal.

In another match of the green group, Kasper Ruud defeated (7-6, 6-4) Felix Auger Aliassime.

The result of the match Nadal – Fritz

Tournament of Champions 2022, group composition

• Green group

Rafael Nadal (1)

Casper Ruud (3)

Felix Auger-Aliassime (5)

Taylor Fritz (8)

• Red group

Stefanos Tsitsipas (2)

Daniel Medvedev (4)

Andriy Rublev (6)

Novak Djokovic (7).

Know:

• The first two places in the two groups advance to the semi-finals, where the first place in one group and the second place in the other group are played according to the system.

• Tournament of Champions matches are played on a best-of-three sets basis.

Tournament of Champions – Records

• Most titles (in singles): Roger Federer (6)

• Oldest champion: Roger Federer, 30 years old, 2011

• Youngest champion: John McEnroe, 19, 1978

• Highest-ranked champion: 1st: Ilie Nastase (1973), Jimmy Connors (1977), Bjorn Borg (1979-80), John McEnroe (1984), Ivan Lendl (1985-87), Pete Sampras (1994, 1996) -97) , Lleyton Hewitt (2002), Roger Federer (2004, 2006-07), Novak Djokovic (2012, 2014-15) and Andy Murray (2016).

• Champion with the lowest rating: 12th place: David Nalbandyan, 2005.

• Most wins: Roger Federer (59).