Rafa Nadal, in the Paris-Bercy Masters 1,000. /
draw
The Balearic will face Ruud, Auger-Aliassime and Fritz in a competition that will miss Alcaraz
Luck smiled on Thursday at Rafa Nadal in the draw for the ATP Finals. Neither Novak Djokovic nor Daniil Medvedev will be in the Spaniard’s group, who will face Casper Ruud, Felix Auger-Aliassime and Taylor Fritz in the first round of the Masters Cup. Djokovic and Medvedev, who have been framed in the red group and are the big favorites for the title, will share a quartet with Stefanos Tsitsipas and Andrey Rublev. The big absentee in the year-end event is Carlos Alcaraz, who had to give up the rest of the season, including the Davis Cup in Malaga, due to the abdominal injury he suffered in Paris-Bercy.
Nadal has two main goals in Turin. The first, getting a title that has eluded him in ten participations and that for many is enough to not consider him the best in history. While Roger Federer has been crowned master six times and Djokovic five, Nadal has only reached two finals, in 2010 (loss to Federer) and 2013 (loss to Djokovic).
The second is linked to the first and is that, if Nadal manages to win the title, either by losing one or two games in the group stage or undefeated, or if he reaches the final, winning the previous three games, he will beat Alcaraz in the rankings and will finish the year as number one in the world.
The difference between Alcaraz and Nadal in the ranking is 1,000 points, so the man from Manacor, by equalizing that gap, will be able to surpass the Murcian. Each victory in the group stage distributes 200 points, winning in the semifinals 400 and the prize for winning the tournament is 500. In total, the undefeated winner takes 1,500 points, in addition to a prize of 4.7 million euros, the major of the ATP circuit. For Nadal this would be the sixth time that he has finished the course as the best, taking off in this statistic from Roger Federer and Jimmy Connors, equaling Pete Sampras and staying one behind Djokovic, who has achieved it seven times.
The draw held in Turin was kind to Nadal, who will face three tennis players in the group stage whom he dominates in the ‘head to head’. The Spaniard beat Ruud this year in the Roland Garros final, who after his final at the US Open has only won two matches on the circuit. He dominates Auger-Aliassime 2-0 in personal history, with wins in Madrid 2019 and Roland Garros 2022. But the Canadian has raised his level a lot since Nadal beat him in five sets in Paris. He has won 16 of the last 17 matches he has played in and has picked up titles in Florence, Antwerp and Basel along the way.
Only Fritz knows what it is to beat Nadal. He did it this year in the Indian Wells final, in a match marked by the Spaniard’s broken rib and the American’s ankle problems. Nadal got his revenge months later at Wimbledon, in a match that Nadal played with an abdominal tear. His first confrontation dates back to Acapulco 2020, with a simple victory for the Balearic Islands.
It will be in the semifinals when Nadal can face Djokovic, who has not won this title since 2015, Medvedev, winner in 2020, Tsitsipas, winner in 2019, or Rublev, who in his two appearances in the competition has never passed the group stage.
