Taylor Fritz wins 2022 BNP Paribas Open

Taylor Fritz played the best match of his career to hand Rafael Nadal his first defeat in 2022 and win the BNP Paribas Open 6-3 7-6(5).

The 2022 Indian Wells final was truly a battle of wounded men, but Taylor Fritz played bravely and with a bit of luck in the end was able to edge out Nadal in two sets. The final looked in jeopardy an hour before with Fritz abandoning his warm-up session due to an ankle injury he sustained against Rublev. Nadal has his own issues with an injured pec.

Ultimately the match went ahead and Fritz was on fire early on. He abused the ball with great precision and that allowed him to jump out to a 4-0 lead. Nadal would pull one break back but it was not enough to overturn the result as the American won the first set with 6-3.

In the 2nd set, Nadal upped his level and took an early lead. Fritz would pull it back immediately and after that, the American was able to keep Nadal away from many break points. He played better than Nadal for quite a while in the 2nd set but the Spaniard held on. A couple of crucial moments in the set decided the match.

At 2-2, Fritz held from 15-40 down. He did the same at 5-5 which could have given Nadal the 2nd set. In the 2nd set tiebreak, Nadal had a 5-4 lead and two serves. On the first serve, he missed a point-blank forehand on the net to give Fritz the tie score. He made another mistake in the next rally which gave Fritz the match he converted.