 Rafael Nadal vs. Taylor Fritz is the second group stage match for the AWP finals for 2022, and both players have had interesting seasons to get to this stage. Fritz started the year off as the number 23 player in the world, and after capturing the biggest title of his life in Indian Worlds, rocketed into the top 10 before settling at number nine in the world to get into the finals. His regular season record was 43 wins 19 losses, winning three titles from the three finals that he's played, including Indian Worlds, which is the biggest title of his career. He also won in Eastbourne and in Tokyo a few months ago. His best win was against Rafael Nadal the number four in the world at the time at Indian Worlds in that final, so Indian Worlds a massive moment there for Fritz in his career. And his worst loss was actually at the US Open, losing to a qualifier ranked 303 in the world, fellow American Holt, so a big upset there for Fritz from what has been a phenomenal season. Rafael started the year off at number six in the world after missing most of 2021 due to injury, and after winning two slams to start the year and a bunch of other titles, he settled in at number two in the world heading into these finals. Again, it was an injury plague season, so Rafael didn't play that many matches, winning 38 and losing six, so not as many matches as probably some of the younger younger guys, but he did make the most of his time on court winning four out of five finals that he played, including the Australian Open, an event in Melbourne before the Australian Open, Acapulco, and of course the French Open, but has been on and off the court with injury since then. His best win, beating the world number one, Novak Djokovic at the French Open in one of the best matches of the tournament, and his worst loss was actually in Cincinnati against Borna Čoric, who was 152 in the world at the time, and we all know Čoric went on to win that tournament, maybe in hindsight not his worst loss, but still, by ranking it as the lowest player that Rafael has lost to this season. These two have played three times before and actually played twice this year with Fritz getting the win at Indian Wells, and of course Rafael winning their epic match at Wimbledon only a couple months ago. If Fritz is going to win this one, he needs to use the conditions to his advantage. He will be the better player on the faster surface and on the indoor courts. We did see that he did actually win on the slower courts and lost on the grass courts at Wimbledon, but I think Fritz has got weapons that will push Rafa around and bully him around. Rafa is going to win. It does come down to fitness. Unfortunately Rafa being 36 years old, everything comes down to whether his body is going to cooperate or not. We know at his best, he can beat everybody in the draw, but he's going to have to be fit enough to beat Fritz because we did see a couple weeks ago, he did suffer from some sort of illness against Tommy Paul losing in three sets. This is going to be a very interesting match because again, like I said, we don't know exactly how physically fit Rafa is. Is he 100%, is he coming in with something? We'll find out I guess on Sunday, but I'm going to go with Rafa to win this one. I just trust Rafa in the big moments and look, this is Fritz's first time at the HB finals. He's going to be a little bit more nervous. So I'm going to go with Rafa to get through in a very close three set up, but let me know down in the comments below, who do you think is going to win this first match?