On March 21, Beijing time, the MEN's singles final of the ATP1000 Indian Wells Masters began to compete, against the no. 4 seed Nadal and the no. 20 seed Fritz. The two sides met once in the 2020 Acapulco final, when Nadal won in two straight sets. Fritz was even better in today's game, defeating Nadal, who was not in the best form, in two straight sets to win the Masters title for the first time in his career.
Nadal was broken by his opponent as soon as he started the first set, and Fritz saved the game and then made it 2-0. Nadal lost again in the 3rd set and Fritz then saved the love game to take a 4-0 lead. In the 8th inning, Nadal broke his opponent's serve and chased the set to 3-5. Fritz broke again in the 9th set with Nadal without a way back, winning the first set 6-3.
Nadal, who was in poor health after the end of the first set, applied for a medical suspension. In the second set, Nadal took the lead in the third set, but then Fritz quickly broke back to make it 2-2. In the 5th inning Fritz saved four break points in the serve, Fritz saved the break point in the 9th set, and Nadal saved the final point of the match in the 10th set to make it 5-5. Fritz saved two consecutive break points in the 11th set, and Nadal saved serve in the 12th set, and the match was dragged into the grab seven. The two sides continued to compete fiercely for the seventh inning, with Fritz scoring three points after 4-5 and winning seven innings 7-5.
In a 2-hour and 6-minute match, Fritz defeated Tournament No. 4 seed Nadal 6-3, 7-6 (5), ending the latter's 20-game winning streak since the start of the season. Fritz won the Masters for the first time in his career, becoming the first local player to win the tournament in 21 years since Agassi in 2001. Nadal regrettably failed to win the title and missed his 37th Masters title.