Rafael Nadal’s dream of winning the ATP Finals and becoming world No. 1, now held by Carlos Alcaraz, is over. The Spaniard, who lost the first two games of the tournament, was awarded his elimination with the victory of Casper Ruud over Taylor Fritz by 2 sets to 1, partials of 6/3, 4/6 and 7/6 ( 8/6), in matches lasting more than two hours.

To continue having a chance to qualify in the final round, Nadal needed Ruud to lose 2-0, but the possibility went straight into space with the Norwegian winning the first set.

The victory even put Ruud in the semi-finals of the competition, as he beat Canadian Félix Auger-Aliassime 2 sets to 0 on his debut.

The last ranked in the table will come out of the confrontation between the Canadian himself and the American Taylor Fritz. Both have a win, precisely over Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard will leave the event facing Ruud.

On Tuesday Ruud and Fritz played at a very high level. The Norwegian won the first set by 6/3, after pulling off moves that even lifted the crowd in Turin.

However, the American wasn’t intimidated by the poor first set, he came back on top and commanded the next set. The superiority was confirmed with a 6/4 victory.

In the third and final set, Fritz edged his opponent throughout the match, and even had a chance to wrap it up when he opened 5/4, but conceded the tie and saw the game decided at the tie break. At the decisive moment, Ruud returned to growth and, with a lot of struggle, confirmed the victory by 8/6 and, therefore, the classification for the semi-final.