It will be a figurative and possibly literal last-man-standing kind of battle when Rafael Nadal goes up against Taylor Fritz in the BNP Paribas Open final.
The road to Sunday’s championship was an absolutely wild one for both players. Nadal should have been out of the tournament right away to Sebastian Korda, but the Spaniard recovered from a double-break down in the third set to survive. He beat Nick Kyrgios in a three-setter on Thursday and needed three hours and 12 minutes to get past Carlos Alcaraz in the semis. Fritz went to third-set tiebreakers in consecutive matches against Jaume Munar and Alex de Minaur before requiring three more sets to defeat Miomir Kecmanovic in the quarters.
Not too surprisingly, both guys are dealing with potential injury issues. Nadal’s chronic foot condition bothered him against Dan Evans and Reilly Opelka in the third and fourth round, respectively, and he took a medical timeout in the third set against Alcaraz for an apparent pectoral problem. Fritz tweaked an ankle late in his semifinal win over Andrey Rublev.
Hopefully those factors won’t impact what has been a perfect season for Nadal and a dream fortnight for Fritz.
Nadal is 20-0 in 2022 and has won the Melbourne 250, Australian Open, and in Acapulco. With his five most recent victories he is now 59-10 lifetime in Indian Wells with titles in 2007, 2009, and 2013.
The best tennis of Fritz’s career dates back to Indian Wells last fall, when he made a semifinal run at what is quite obviously his favorite tournament. Since that point in time he is 25-8 in the span of 33 matches, including a 13-4 record this year. The 20th-ranked American is 14-5 lifetime in the desert after enjoying the biggest moment of his career with Saturday’s 7-5, 6-4 upset of Rublev.
“It’s like — I said it yesterday — it’s like those moments are the reason why I wanted to be an athlete, wanted to play professional tennis,” Fritz said. “It’s the best part of it all.”
Now he faces the tour’s current best player.
“The worst thing (about playing against Nadal),” Fritz explained, “is probably just knowing that he’s just going to keep fighting, he’s always going to be there every point, he’s not going to like give you anything, it’s just the competitiveness–like, he’s always going to want it so bad.
“The best thing is…I’m not going to get completely served off the court. I can potentially get looks at return games. But he’s such a good returner that it kind of works the other way; he’s going to get looks at my serves. I’ve been serving great all week, but he’ll still return my serve.”
Nadal has been withstanding anything thrown at him in 2022, and Sunday should be no different. Although an upset would not come as a huge shock given the circumstances of the overall fortnight for both players, it’s impossible to pick against the 21-time Grand Slam champion right now.
Pick: Nadal in 2
Just read. So it is a stress fracture. This is a serious blow to his RG chances. Rome starts on 2nd May. Can he make it?
I bet they are now regretting playing the final. They did not know this was a fracture and if they did, surely he’d have pulled out.
Rafa tends to play a full clay schedule before arriving at RG. Now, he’s forced to take rest to recover, he won’t be overplaying on clay for sure.
Given how well he could play and win 20 straight matches on the HCs even when just coming back from injuries with very little match play, I think he can do well on clay despite playing only two warm up events. Of course that’s provided he can fully recover.
I’m not sure that Rafa would have pulled out anyway. He treats finals as sacred. If you can stand up, you play, has always been his attitude. But good grief, playing two sets with a cracked rib?!? How tough is this man??
A year and a half ago Rafa absolutely creamed Djoker in the RG final after playing only Rome (all that was on offer that year of the plague) and losing in the quarters so I don’t think RG is hopeless. Forced rest may actually help.
I think he’ll come back to play at Madrid and then Rome and RG. I think he may not do well at Madrid but he could pick up at Rome and be ready for RG.
The most important thing now is to rest and recover. I’m confident that if Rafa recovers fully, he’s good enough to win on clay.
Somehow im feeling calm about it..not sure why ..rest is keen to have lot of energies for french…skip Madrid too ..no point playing it. .
Just play rome n RG that’s it ..
Let’s just say lucky that 3 out of 6 weeks he wasn’t going to play anyway ..the sole reason for this is IW swapping the SFS ..i don’t understand why if rafas side played first ,was their semi made second ..if it was first ,they wld not have faced the wind…
Rafa got Covid coming back from abudabhi and then came back n won a slam ..another misfortune here ..he will give his best ..he shld be in top 4 for rg that’s it ..tsitsi has lot of points to defend in mc n Barcelona ..1300 points. So somehow Rafa needs to be seeded within 4
Are molefarm family jumping in joy that Rafa is missing half the clay ?have they already given all the clay titles to Novak already ?
NoVax should still have some good competition on clay. Doubt he’ll play Barcelona. Hopefully Thiem will be back at last. Tsitsi is very good on clay when he’s playing well. So is Abuserev and a few others. Not to mention the new kid on the block, Alcaraz.
The key is for rafa to allow it to heal totally n completely n not rush back…anyone knows the intensity of the fracture ?
Why did he play the final?!
I have had a bad feeling he was going to get injured since before Acapulco which is why I said I thought he shouldn’t play then and should be very careful with his schedule.
He can still win RG providing the injury heals by then.
I assume they did not realize how bad it was. They did not have time to get any tests done. But when he talked about difficulty breathing, I had a bad feeling that it was the rib.
This would not have happened if he did not play in such terrible wind conditions. Rafa says it was like a sandstorm. His match was scheduled first initially. Then it was changed. I wish they had decided to stop for a while until the wind eased up.
The thing I was worrying about was the foot. Now he has to deal with another injury. I just want him to take the time to let this heal. We know he will get the best treatment. I am hoping that he can come back strong, but it has to be hard to keep dealing with injuries.
Nny, the most important thing g is that he doesn’t play again until the injury is fully healed. If he is good to go by RG I still think he will win even if he doesn’t play any lead up tournament.
But I hope he pares down his schedule to slams and masters going forward. I know he can get injured any time but I still think it was unwise to play so much especially after being out so long.
Any rib fracture is not a good thing. I just felt that Rafa saying he was having trouble breathing was not a good sign. At least now they know what it is and he can treatment.
I was concerned to read on VB a tweet to the effect that Rafa was sunken emotionally. I can’t imagine how difficult this is for him. He comes back after six months off for the foot and now this.
I I am really angry that they changed the time of his semifinal match. If they kept it at the original time Rafa would not have nad to suffer in those terrible windy conditions. This did not need to happen.
At least now he knows and can deal with it.
I see Iga is up to #2. Looks like she will be #1 at some point this year.
With all those injuries falling up all the time. I really won’t blame Rafa if he retires “prematurely”!! It must be quite frustrating! I mean at the level the game is currently, thanks the ti big 3, it will be tough for those after them to be able to elevate the game further without it costing them especially in terms of consistency and longevity! There r so many tournaments and the way the men and women play now with such intensity, injuries will be common place!