Rafa Nadal is out of ATP Finals, Carlos Alcaraz smiles from afar

Alcaraz is the youngest ever to end the year as world No. 1

Already a foot and a half out of the ATP Finals, Rafa Nadal only needed to finish watching the first set of the match between Casper Ruud and Taylor Fritz to start packing his bags: the first set won by the Norwegian arithmetically forced Nadal to say goodbye to the Finals, among other things triggering a domino effect at the world ranking level involving the great absentee of the tournament being held in Turin, Carlos Alcaraz.

The latter, in fact, is now sure to end the 2022 season at the top of the ATP world rankings: at only 19 years old, he is the youngest person to succeed in the feat of ending the year at the top of the professional tennis rankings, achieved thanks to a season in which he was able to win the US Open, the Miami and Madrid Masters 1000s, and the ATP 500s in Rio de Janeiro and Barcelona.

Returning to Nadal, in the press conference on the sidelines of the match he lost to Auger-Aliassime, the Mallorcan had seemed sad, but not definitively resigned: “I don’t think I have forgotten how to play tennis,” his words before reporters, “I just have to recover positive feelings, confidence and mentality. I don’t know if I will reach that level again, but I have no doubt that I would die on the court to do it.”