After losing his first match at the ATP World Tour Finals on Sunday to Casper Ruud of Norway, 7-6, 6-4, Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal, Quebec returned to the .500 mark on Tuesday in Turin, Italy, with an impressive 6-3, 6-4 win over Rafael Nadal of Manacor, Spain, the 22-time grand slam champion (14 French Opens, four United States Opens, two Wimbledons and two Australian Open titles). A major reason why Auger-Aliassime was victorious came down to the serve. He had 15 aces, compared to only one for Nadal. Meanwhile, Nadal had four double faults, while Auger-Aliassime had two.
Nadal had more break point opportunities in the match (five compared to four for Auger-Aliassime), but was unable to capitalize on any of them. Auger-Aliassime was able to break Nadal once in each set. Prior to Turin, Nadal had beaten Auger-Aliassime in their two prior meetings. The first time was in the second round of Madrid in 2019 by a score of 6-3, 6-3. The second time was in the fourth round of the 2022 French Open, where Nadal won in five sets, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.
Ruud leads the Green Group with two wins and zero losses. In addition to beating Auger-Aliassime in straight sets on the weekend to begin the tournament, he beat American Taylor Fritz 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 on Tuesday.
Auger-Aliassime will have to beat Fritz on Thursday to reach the semifinals. Fritz won their only prior meeting, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4 at the 2022 ATP Cup in Sydney, Australia in January.
