Taylor Fritz Wins Indian Wells Final Beating Nadal

Taylor Fritz Wins Indian Wells Final Beating Nadal. 

With a 6-3 7-6 (5) victory in the Indian Wells final on Sunday, Taylor Fritz ended Rafael Nadal’s 20-match winning streak, becoming the first American to win the tournament since Andre Agassi over two decades ago.

Fans expected a heroic effort and an American winner from home favorite Fritz, who denied Nadal what would have been his fourth trophy of the season and a record-tying 37 ATP Masters 1000 titles.

Fritz claimed he had qualms about taking to the court after winning his second career title since he was nursing an ailing ankle and had never experienced such discomfort before a match.

But the 24-year-old American persevered and was rewarded with his biggest career win, defeating the 21-time Grand Slam winner.

MORE: Poland’s Iga Swiatek Wins Indian Wells final.

“This is one of those childhood dreams you think will never come true,” Fritz explained. “It’s impossible to put into words how ludicrous it is that I could play today.”

“I’ve never felt more pain than before a match.”

“I wouldn’t have come out here if I had known it would be this nasty,” I screamed and walked a few steps differently, and I was trying to seem tough because cameras were following me.

“We put in a lot of effort building up to the match, and I had a rollercoaster of emotions before the match, thinking there was no way I could play today.”

Coming into the final, both players were concerned about their fitness.

While Fritz was suffering from an ankle injury, Nadal was battling a chest problem that he had picked up during an intense three-set semi-final battle with compatriot Carlos Alcaraz. The latter was only 18 years old at the time.

The 35-year-old Spaniard seemed out of sorts to begin the match, as Fritz broke him twice on his route to a 4-0 lead.

But, as he has done so many times before, Nadal refused to surrender, twice holding the service and breaking the American to take the match to 5-3, causing a commotion in the sold-out arena.

Fritz would rebound and use a third break to shatter Nadal’s rally and take a one-set lead.

Nadal took a medical timeout at the end of the first set and returned to the court with renewed vigour.

Nadal, one of the game’s great fighters, forced a tie-break in the second set, but the big-serving American was too powerful.