UK: 18+ USA: 21+ | Begambleaware.org | T&Cs apply | Play Responsibly
If you tuned in to watch the Rafael Nadal vs Casper Ruud game today, you’d have been reminded why Nadal is such a great champion. Ruud had been pretty flawless in his first two matches, beating both Fritz and Auger-Aliassime. However, he has fallen at the final hurdle at the hands of Rafael Nadal. In two close sets, Nadal gave us all his final show of 2022 by teaching Ruud a quick lesson out there on the main court in Turin.
The final score was 7-5, 7-5, and Nadal seemed to be back to his old self by edging out his much younger opponent. Sadly, this victory isn’t enough to take him through to the knockout stages. And this means that Nadal will not be competing to try and win his first ATP Finals trophy in Turin 2022.
Some pundits are already saying that this will be the title that eludes Nadal no matter how much longer he keeps playing the game too. As it happens, I tend to agree with this opinion. It just seems that when it gets to this point in the year, Nadal lacks that spark that he has much earlier in the season. At the same time, we all know that Nadal isn’t an enormous fan of indoor hard-court tennis.
It’s usually much quicker than Nadal likes, and the venom in his heavy topspin groundstrokes just doesn’t sting as much. This has always been problematic for Nadal at the ATP Finals. And when you consider the fact that he has qualified for the ATP Finals 17 times but has not won the thing, it doesn’t look great for this legend.
Despite this, can Nadal take any positives away from Turin 2022?
Nadal Ending the Year on a Positive Note
Contents
Let’s be honest, it would have been sad to watch Nadal go 0-3 at the ATP Finals this year. And really, this would have been one of the biggest shocks of the season, in my personal opinion. Let’s not forget that Nadal is still the number 2 ranked player in the world at the moment. He even had a shot to steal the number 1 end-of-year ranking from Alcaraz, but it wasn’t to be.
Anyway, with Nadal finishing his season with a win over Casper Ruud, what positives can he take from the tournament?
His Fighting Spirit Is Still There
Many people were writing Nadal off going into the clash against Ruud. He hadn’t played great in his previous two matches. And when things got close, we didn’t witness the machine-like Nadal that we’ve all come to expect over the years. Yet Nadal put the doubters to bed in the important moments today against Casper Ruud. He looked as hungry as ever to grab the win, despite the fact that he couldn’t qualify for the knockout stages.
He Is Still a Huge Threat When He Finds His Range
I believe that Rafael Nadal produced a great level of tennis against Ruud. He looked solid from the baseline and his movement even seemed to have improved from just two days ago. Of course, when he starts dictating with his forehand, this is when we see the true power of Nadal and what he can do to opponents. This was evident today, so I feel he’s still got it, despite the doubts in recent weeks.
Subscribe to Punditfeed on Google News for all the latest updates from the world of sports!
