You could not have blamed Taylor Fritz if the occasion was too big for him: the final of his favorite tournament, Rafael Nadal on the other side of the net, and an ankle injury.
But it wasn’t too big.
Instead, Fritz picked up the biggest win of his career thanks to his gutsiest performance. The 24-year-old overcame all of the aforementioned obstacles to defeat Nadal 6-3, 7-6(5) for the BNP Paribas Open title on Sunday afternoon.
It is true that Fritz did get some help from his opponent, because he wasn’t the only one who went into the championship match with physical problems. Nadal had sustained an apparent pectoral injury during his semifinal marathon against Carlos Alcaraz, and it was clear from the start of Sunday’s contest that he was well less than 100 percent. In fact, Nadal did not even win a game until he was already down 4-0 in the opening set. The 35-year-old has been no stranger to miracle comebacks in 2022 and he mounted another charge in typical fashion, but this time he came up short.
“(I) tried til’ the end,” Nadal said. “That’s it. Even (though) I had my chances in the second set, I didn’t convert too many chances. That’s it, no? I think it’s a difficult match to analyze personally from my side because I was not able to do many things. But, yeah, it’s a great victory for him — first Masters 1000. Big day for him. I just hope he enjoys it.”
Fritz will most definitely enjoy it. This is an event the California native has always dreamt of winning.
“I’m going to have to hold back tears for every single interview I do, every single on-court speech,” the world No. 20 commented during a post-match interview. “This is going to be tough because I’m such a happy crier. Winning this tournament especially, Indian Wells, this is one of those childhood dreams that you just never think can come true. I just keep saying, ‘No, no. Just no way it’s real.”
How’s this for real? Fritz is the first American man to triumph in Indian Wells since Andre Agassi in 2001 and he is the first player to beat Nadal in 2022 (the 21-time Grand Slam champion had been a perfect 20-0). As if that isn’t enough, Fritz will also climb to a career-high ranking of No. 13 in the world on Monday.
Fritz may be crying happy tears for a while, because all of that is most definitely real.
I don’t care if Rafa lost the final ..all im worried of is the injury just 3 weeks before clay. This clay season is important and comments like this worry you more..
https://mobile.twitter.com/russellcfuller/status/1505721708870733824
Sanju,
Don’t worry yourself like this. Hopefully we will get some info about the injury. I could tell that Rafa was in a lot of pain after the match.
Let’s just try to think positively for now.
Yes nny keep us posted if you hear from vb.
My worry is if it’s a tear and that will mean 4-6 weeks rest which means no play till rome.
Did Rafa not get it checked yesterday to figure if it was a tear ?
No worries.
He’ll be fresh as a daisy in no time.
Injuries are only reserved for non-clay time…
He said given the amount of time they had, he couldn’t get it checked. After reading his presser, I am also a bit concerned now.
Yes VR all i want is one more slam this year and him to end his career with 100 titles, he is 9 short now. Time is running out. I had hoped this year would be big and he could win around 7 titles to take it to 95-96 overall and then somehow get 4 more subsequent years ..i am now worried as i expected around 3 to come in clay season …yes the first 3 months was an unexpected bonus given where he was last year ..maybe our own dreams n wishes for him jinxed him (:-
I’m just hoping to hear it’s a minor blip which will go away in 10 days.max n hope to see him practising on beloved clay soon
Congrats to Fritz.
Sorry about Rafa. Hope he heals quickly.
Anyone gets any news please post here for the rafans …
Well done Fritz I’m happy to see US player win since Agassi who was my favourite. But has to be said asterisk this time as Fritz has nothing to hurt Rafa with on a slow court like this.
But what about the other titles with asterisks? There’s quite a few but they all count!
At the moment it looks like the Big Three are out indefinitely when did that happen
Roger started it with his last knee surgery. Then Rafa’s foot kicked up during his RG semi, then Nole decided vaccination is just not for him … and here we are. We are in Miami sans the Big Three. I’ll find it relaxing, anyway. But probably also boring.
Lol!!! Very boring, I find myself now watching Verdasco vs Coric in Miami, sigh! Only bcoz i haven’t seen Verdasco play in a while! But where r the next gens?!! The big era was really something!!
Proud of both players….gutsy effort by both!!!
I’m sure Rafa’s injury is not long lasting. Remember despite his age Rafa is super fit!! So I’m sure he’ll be ready for RG! Look, we should be grateful! Rafa had an excellent season, playing all these tourneys and winning at his age…….it would always affect him in some way, shape or form. Even the younger tennis players have some injury or other, and those without injury are not winning as much as Rafa, and even more so, those who don’t have physical injury, have mental injury!! So Rafa will be fine!!!Vamos!!
Update on rafas injury
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.sportskeeda.com/amp/tennis/for-now-priority-remove-pain-rafael-nadal-s-doctor-provides-update-mallorcan-s-recovery
Thanks Sanju. It appears 4-6 weeks is a conservative timeframe. If all goes well, they can have Rafa on the court in 2-3 weeks and then progress with training. I think 9th May for Rome sounds quite achievable. If he can’t make that somehow, he can play a 250 event in Lyon or Geneva before RG.
Andy Roddick on Tennis Channel opined that the important thing was to keep his legs in shape, and if he could do that he’d be in a good place. I’m sure Rafa will do all that’s possible.
According to Rafa’s doc, Angel Ruiz Cotorro, this injury is a stress injury, which happens over time, rather than the result of something sudden, like a quick movement or impact. So it wasn’t the wind that did it.
I looked up a rib stress injury yesterday and it’s clear it happens over time. But it doesn’t usually affect tennis players. It’s normally rowers and such like.
Anyway, it suggests yet again that Rafa was unwise to play so much having been out so long.
I am not going to criticize Rafa for playing Acapulco and IW. He took about a month off after winning the AO. He recovered well and felt good. So he played in Acapulco. Then he decided to play IW. Again feeling good and wanting to play after being sidelined for six months, that is natural.
The real risk fir Rafa was coming into the AO without being physically ready. Rafa himself said he was not ready physically. We saw that when he got heat stroke in the quarterfinal match.
Should Rafa not have played at the AO? Should he sit at home in fear of incurring another injury? Life is filled with risks. When Rafa plays there can be a risk of injury. But nobody here has a crystal ball and knows when he will get injured. Even his doctor doesn’t know.
Rafa waited a month after the AO before he played again. I am okay with the tournaments he played. As long as he plays tennis, there will be the risk of injury. He was feeling good, winning and enjoying it.
I wish he did not get injured. At least we know that it wasn’t the wind that did it. But I still think they should have stopped play.
Rafa will persevere and come back. I wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him on the court again.
The 4-6 weeks for recovery may be a blessing in disguise; Rafa usually plays a lot of matches during the clay season as he tends not to skip any event on clay (he loves MC and Barcelona; Madrid may be an obligation as it’s played in Spain; Rome is the last stop for preparation before the FO so he normally doesn’t want to miss that); and so he may be ‘overplaying’ on clay given his age now.
In 2020 when he came back to play at Rome in later part of the year, choosing to skip the US HC swing, he reached the QF (ie played only 3 matches) and then he went on to win the FO without dropping a set! He’s capable of winning the FO even with minimal warm up events played.
I think going forward, he may just concentrate on playing the Slams and the Masters, and may skip some of the Masters too, building in three to four weeks rest before switching of surfaces.
I’m guessing he may come back to play Madrid, Rome and then RG if things go well, followed by Wimbledon. Thereafter, Canada and USO, Shanghai, Paris and WTF (he will most likely qualify).
Rafa loves playing Madrid because of the incredible support he gets there, and because it’s in Spain, of course. So he loves it even though it’s his least successful of the Euro clay court tourneys. Rafa’s never minded a challenge! Not gonna call this horrible, painful injury any kind of “blessing” though!
I’m wondering if Rafa’s new faster serve has something to do with this stress injury though. It’s said to be an unusual injury for a tennis player. Well, we’ll see how he’s serving when he starts playing again.
First first serve isn’t faster, it’s just the second serve. I think it is greater vulnerability to such injuries due to the age factor. I think he’ll be fine and I agree it is good in a way that his body gets some rest now. Given his form, he’d have won MC and he doesn’t like to skip his home events.
As long as he if back to full health and is able to play Rome, I think he will be the favourite for RG.
He can win RG without warm ups but we know Rafa feels calmer with better preparation so I hope he gets some quality prep.