{"id":53405,"date":"2022-11-15T10:51:49","date_gmt":"2022-11-15T15:51:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/?p=53405"},"modified":"2022-11-15T10:51:49","modified_gmt":"2022-11-15T15:51:49","slug":"felix-auger-aliassime-win-nadal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2022\/11\/15\/felix-auger-aliassime-win-nadal\/","title":{"rendered":"Two keys to Felix Auger-Aliassime’s win over Rafael Nadal at the ATP Tour Finals"},"content":{"rendered":"

Felix Auger-Aliassime beat Rafael Nadal 6-3 6-4 in a green group match of the ATP Finals in Turin on Tuesday. The match lasted around two hours as the 22-year-old Canadian<\/a> registered his first ever win against the 36-year-old Spaniard.<\/p>\n

Keys to Felix Auger-Aliassime’s win over Rafael Nadal at the ATP Finals<\/h2>\n

#1. Auger-Aliassime’s powerful serve and forehand helped him win the first set:<\/h4>\n

Auger-Aliassime exhibited a lot of power in his first serve and forehand to make things difficult for Nadal in the first set. There were a lot of unreturned first serves as Nadal found it difficult to deal with the Canadian’s ferocious power.<\/p>\n

Auger-Aliassime got the vital break of serve in the eighth game of the set and then served it out. Auger-Aliassime kept serving well under pressure and managed to save a few break points. Nadal also supplied him with enough short balls for the latter to dispatch them with his forehand.<\/p>\n

#2. Nadal adjusted his court position in the second set, but could not break Auger-Aliassime:<\/h4>\n

Nadal adjusted his court position while returning by standing deeper in the second set. As a result, the ratio of unreturned serves decreased, but the Spaniard still found it impossible to break the Canadian.<\/p>\n

Auger-Aliassime, meanwhile, managed to get yet another vital break and never lost his serve. Nadal<\/a> tried to put pressure on the Canadian’s backhand, but the latter kept hitting backhand slices to take the pace off the ball.<\/p>\n

He also kept hitting his forehand with great power and finished with 29 winners, including 15 aces in the match, while Nadal could hit only 12. The Canadian also won 81% of the points on his first serve against Nadal’s 72%. Although Nadal put pressure on his second serve, thereby making him win only 40% of the points on it, the Canadian did just about enough in the end.<\/p>\n

Main Photo:
\nEmbed from Getty Images<\/a>