Rafa Nadal's chances of winning the ATP Finals title were shattered by Felix Auger-Aliassime, who thrashed the struggling Spaniard 6-3, 6-4 on Tuesday in round-robin action at Turin's Pala Alpitour Stadium. For the first time in his illustrious career, Nadal has to win the year-end championship in order to have a chance of finishing the season as the top player in the world, but after a promising start, he faltered terribly.
With one match left against Norway's Casper Ruud, the 35-year-old sits in last place in his group after being defeated by American Taylor Fritz in his opening match on Sunday. For the first time since 2009, Nadal, the record-holder with 22 Grand Slam victories, has now lost four straight ATP Tour matches.
Auger-Aliassime, who is now being coached by Toni, Nadal's uncle and long-time mentor who sat in his box, will face Fritz in his final group match with a chance of making the last four.
Nadal periodically had the upper hand in the first set and twice came close to breaking the serve of his Canadian opponent, who was defeated by Ruud on his tournament debut on Sunday.
Serving at 3-4 Nadal led 40-0 but a couple of double faults and baseline errors allowed Auger-Aliassime to break. Auger-Aliassime, who has won four titles this season, closed off the first set with a stronghold and took the lead early in the second.
After breaking Nadal's serve once more in the third game of the second set, Auger-Aliassime served out the match. Nadal's return into the net let the Canadian win the match straight away.
Despite displaying brief bursts of brilliance, Nadal was unable to make a big impact and slumped to defeat.
(Edited by : Priyanka Deshpande)
