Rafael Nadal finishes 2nd in the Balearic Mid-Amateur Golf Championship

Rafael Nadal finished second in the Balearic Mid-Amateur Golf Championship over the weekend, 12 strokes behind winner Federico Paez. The Spaniard finished Day 1 of the tournament in third position and carried his momentum into the second day as well.

The 21-time Grand Slam champion finished the 18-hole course on Sunday with a score of 77, five strokes over par and three more than his own score in the previous round. But it proved sufficient for the Mallorcan, as Juan Pedro Manjon, who had been two strokes ahead of Nadal when Saturday's session ended, could only complete the course with a score of 80.

Day 1's leader Paez, on the other hand, improved on his first-round score of 70 (two below par) by completing the course on Sunday with three strokes fewer than the par score. The winners list was announced by the tournament's official handle on their Instagram page.

"Federico Paez is the champion of the Balearic Islands Mid-Amateur 2022 - Trablisa! No. 1 - Federico Páez 139 strokes. No. 2 - Rafael Nadal 151 strokes. Congratulations!" the post was captioned.

It should be noted that at last year's edition of the tournament, the 21-time Grand Slam champion placed sixth. In 2020, he completed the event in fourth place.

Rafael Nadal loses the lead for most match wins in 2022 to Felix Auger-Aliassime

The Spaniard has fallen behind Felix-Auger Aliassime in the race for match wins in 2022

Rafael Nadal has not played any competitive tennis since winning the 2022 Australian Open, a result of which he has been overtaken by Felix Auger-Aliassime in the race for most match wins in 2022.

The former World No. 1 began his year at the Melbourne Summer Set, where he went all the way. The top seed received a bye into the first round and received a walkover from Tallon Griekspoor in the quarterfinals, meaning that he ended up with three wins to his name.

Combined with seven victories during his campaign at Melbourne Park, the Spaniard began the year with a 10-match winning streak. It gave the World No. 5 the lead in terms of matches won on the ATP tour at the end of January.

But courtesy of his title run at the Rotterdam Open, Auger-Aliassime has notched up 12 victories since the turn of the new year. The Canadian won three matches in the ATP Cup, four matches at the Australian Open in his run to the quarterfinals, and five more at Rotterdam.

The man Auger-Aliassime ousted in the final at Rotterdam, Stefanos Tsitsipas, also has 10 wins to his name in 2022.