Taylor Fritz stuns Rafael Nadal at Indian Wells, becomes first American to win men’s event in 20 years
- American battles ankle injury to over 21-time grand slam winner who was chasing fourth title of season
- Nadal went into the final fighting a chest issue he picked up during epic three-set semi-final battle with Carlos Alcaraz
A wounded Taylor Fritz brought Rafael Nadal’s 20-match winning run to an end with a 6-3 7-6 victory in the Indian Wells final on Sunday, becoming the first American to lift the men’s title since Andre Agassi more than two decades ago.
Home favourite Fritz gave fans what they came to see - an heroic effort and an American winner, denying Nadal what would have been his fourth title of the season and a record-equalling 37 ATP Masters 1000 championships.
Nursing an injured ankle, Fritz said after collecting his second career title he had had doubts he could even take to the court and had never before experienced such pain before a match.
But the 24-year-old American decided to gut it out and was rewarded with the biggest win of his career, fighting off the 21-time grand slam winner.
“This is just one of those childhood dreams you just think would never come true,” said Fritz. “I can’t even describe how ridiculous it is how I could play today. I have never experienced worse pain in my life before a match.
“If I knew it was going to be that bad, I wouldn’t have come out here. I took a couple of change-of-direction steps and screamed and honestly I was trying to act tough because I had cameras on me.
“We did a lot of work leading up to the match and I went through a rollercoaster of emotions before the match thinking there’s no way I could possibly play today.”