Nadal, Auger-Aliassime about to be ‘killed’: “Almost a lesser rival”

Rafa Nadal will face Felix Auger-Aliassime this Tuesday (2:00 pm) in his second match at the ATP Finals in Turin. This is a decisive match, as both are forced to win after their losses in their respective debuts on Sunday.

The Spaniard and the Canadian are in the Italian city for a few days preparing for the masters tournament and even They were spotted training together in a session that left us with the most viral moment.

And it was that Rafa hits Felix behind the ball in one of the moments while practicing the serve. “Almost one less rival” was the hilarious reaction of the winner of 22 Grand Slam titles to the laughter of Toni Nadal’s student, a regular at the Rafa Nadal Academy for many years.

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That he was a pupil of Toni Nadal is nothing more than an anecdote. At Roland Garros, the coach sat in the presidential box, because of the importance of the duel for his nephew, who won 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6 and 6-3. In Turin he commented that he was in Auger’s box, even without a hit.

Rafa Nadal has bigger concerns on his mind. He is aware of the limitations of filming so little on the ATP Tour, with the combination of indoor hard courts emphasizing the virtues of opponents and not making it easy on himself, as the fact that he has yet to win suggests at the ATP Finals, in that he was a finalist. in 2010 and 2013.

Maybe I will not take advantage of this edition, but Nadal and his team are also working in the medium term, thinking about Australia. Manacorí needs real fights, no matter how much he puts maximum intensity in training, to recover his automatisms.

Nothing could help Auger-Aliassime, who had already paid for hazing on Sunday against a great Casper Ruud (7-6, 6-4). It was the second match in a row that he did not win, after a streak of sixteen consecutive victories that made him the leader in matches won indoors (27) and hard court (41). After Rune subdued Paris, I stumbled against the Norwegian on Italian soil.