American Taylor Fritz claimed the biggest paycheque of his tennis career, winning his maiden ATP Masters 1000 title by defeating Spanish stalwart Rafael Nadal 6-3, 7-6(5) in the BNP Paribas Open final on Monday.
It was 21-time Grand Slam-winner Nadal’s first defeat of the 2022 season, while it was the biggest career win for the 24-year-old American, who lifted his second ATP Tour trophy.
The San Diego native, who nearly pulled out ahead of match with an ankle injury, launched a full-scale attack on the 35-year-old Nadal to deny him a record-tying 37th ATP Masters 1000 title and end his personal-best 20-match win streak this season.
After twisting his ankle in the semifinal win over Russian Andrey Rublev on Saturday, Fritz further aggravated the problem in his warm-up ahead of the final.
“I can’t even begin to describe how ridiculous it is that I was able to play how I could play today,” Fritz was quoted as saying by atptour.com. “I’ve never experienced worse pain in my life before a match
