Uncle is not responsible for his nephew – Newspaper Kommersant No. 212 (7413) dated 11/16/2022

At the ongoing tournament in Turin, the final tournament of the Association of Tennis Professionals with a prize fund of $14.75 million, his debutant Felix Auger-Aliassime confidently outplayed Rafael Nadal in the second round of the group round. The trials that befell the famous Spaniard, and the reaction to them of his uncle Toni Nadal, who is now coaching the young Canadian, were watched by a Kommersant correspondent from the podium of the Pala Alpitour stadium. Evgeny Fedyakov.

Several years ago, when putting forward the candidature of their city to participate in the tender for the Nitto ATP Finals, the authorities of Turin, among other things, took into account the appearance in Italy of a whole group of talented craftsmen who could potentially become participants in this competition. However, this season the Italians could not play at home. The reason for this was injuries that prevented Matteo Berrettini from finishing in the top ten for the fourth year in a row, and clipped Yannick Sinner’s wings at a decisive stage in the struggle for Turin vouchers. However, this factor does not affect the attendance of the 12,000-seat Pala Alpitour arena too much. The skill and charisma of the unfading headliners of men’s tennis – Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal – continue to attract great spectator interest. In the first two days, almost 40,000 tickets were sold for four game sessions. Five years ago, in London, such an indicator would be considered mediocre, but in Turin it is quite acceptable. True, he will soon have to say goodbye to one of the two outstanding champions.

Pretty quickly losing to Taylor Fritz in the first round, Nadal entered the game with Felix Auger-Aliassime in an unusual outsider status. And it’s not just about too fast coverage, which is used in Turin and is categorically not suitable for the clay king. “If you were going through what I’ve been through in the past six months, you would probably consider it a positive thing to be here,” Nadal said after yesterday’s match.

By this, he meant not only the torn abdominal muscle, due to which he had to withdraw from the Wimbledon semi-finals, but also the exciting expectation of the birth of his son, who was born on October 8, after several weeks spent by his mother in conservation. In general, there is nothing surprising in the fact that after reaching the fourth round of the US Open, the Spanish giant suffered four defeats in a row for the first time since 2009. Three of them were inflicted on him by the Americans – Francis Tiafoe, Tommy Paul and Fritz, and now Auger-Aliassime has extended this series. And this happened with the participation of Tony Nadal, the uncle and former coach of the 22-time Grand Slam winner, who has been working with the leader of Canadian tennis since last spring.

Five months ago, Tony Nadal’s nephew, who was fighting his way to his fourteenth Roland Garros title, had already faced the young Canadian in Paris in the fourth round. And then the coach did not consider it possible to take a place in the guest box of his ward during the match, watching the fight from the podium.

But now too many things looked different. Therefore, Toni Nadal admitted that the result of the match would not be a tragedy for him in any case, went to the first row of a special sector allocated near the court for the Auger-Aliassime team, and sat there for almost two hours with an almost impenetrable face. There was no point in worrying too much. For those who are at least a little versed in tennis, the outcome of the meeting was almost clear after the first set, during which Nadal could not convert four break points, and gave up his serve in the eighth game, leading 40:0 and making two double faults in a row . The aggressive and very solid game of the 22-year-old Canadian, in which elements of the immature junior tennis that had been viewed quite recently, has finally disappeared, turned out to be too good for the current Nadal. Having won with a score of 6:3, 6:4, Auger-Aliassime, who lost his first match to Kasper Ruud, retained a real opportunity to leave the group. But his opponent almost said goodbye to the hope of at least second place. In order for Nadal to have a minimal chance to take it, Fritz in the Tuesday evening match had to beat Ruud in two games, and with a noticeable advantage.