Watch: Rafael Nadal struggles to identify trophies he has won; Felix Auger-Aliassime & Casper Ruud ace the challenge
Rafael Nadal might be good at remembering the years he won certain titles, but when it comes to identifying trophies, the Spaniard fumbles.
It was evident during a fun 'Name that Trophy' challenge that the ATP tour conducted ahead of the season-ending ATP Finals 2022, currently underway in Turin.
Six out of the eight qualifiers — Daniil Medvedev, Casper Ruud, Felix Auger-Aliassime, Andrey Rublev, Taylor Fritz, and Nadal — were involved in the challenge. They were shown diagrams of a few trophies and asked to identify them and the players who won them this year.
The first trophy that came up was that of the Monte-Carlo Masters. Auger-Aliassime, Ruud and Medvedev guessed correctly, while Fritz incorrectly suggested that it was Rome. After being given a clue that the name of the tournament starts with M, Rublev replied Metz, Montpellier and Montreal.
The most surprising part, however, was when the "King of Clay" was shown the trophy. Nadal's first reply was:
"No idea... No idea!"
It came as a shock to tennis lovers that the Spaniard was unable to guess the trophy he has lifted a staggering 11 times in the past.
After a pause, he came up with the correct answer but looked dubitable all along.
You can watch the video here:
The other trophies that were shown were Gstaad, Dubai, Acapulco, Vienna, Indian Wells, and Rotterdam.
Casper Ruud and Felix Auger-Aliassime grew in confidence as the challenge progressed. In fact, Ruud, the French and US Open runner-up, was leading the pack with 12 points, with the Canadian hot on his heels at 11 points until the last question.
However, Ruud could only manage Florence as the answer when he was shown the Rotterdam trophy. The Rotterdam winner Auger-Aliassime unsurprisingly went on to identify the trophy correctly and edged Ruud to win the contest.
As for Nadal, he committed another double fault by coming up with Felix as the name of the winner after correctly guessing the Vienna trophy. Even Medvedev didn't look confident answering the question, despite emerging victorious in the Austrian capital last month.
The final scores were: Auger-Aliassime - 13, Fritz - 5, Medvedev - 12, Nadal - 11, Rublev - 11, Ruud - 12.
Nadal beats Ruud to finish season on a winning note
Two-time runner-up Rafael Nadal's ATP Finals 2022 campaign didn't go according to plan in his first two matches. The top seed suffered crushing defeats at the hands of both Taylor Fritz and Felix Auger-Aliassime in straight sets.
However, the southpaw rebounded in sterling fashion on Thursday in his final group game against Casper Ruud, who had already qualified for the semifinals. Striking 37 winners, the Spaniard edged his younger rival 7-5, 7-5 to end his ATP Finals campaign on a high.
The former World No. 1 thus finished the season with a 39-8 tour-level win-loss record. He won four titles, with the Australian Open and the French Open being the biggest of them all.