His 13th consecutive win of the season came from Rafael Nadal, who joins Abierto Mexicano and is heading for his third consecutive title.

The tall Spaniard managed to avoid the adventure of a third set in the quarter-final match against Tommy Paul, but finally sealed his victory 6-0, 7-6 (5) and advanced to the semi-finals of the ATP 500 tournament.

There the new No. 1 in the world rankings was waiting for him, Daniel Medvedev, who had previously easily defeated Yoshihito Nisioka 6:2, 6:3. Nadal and Medvedev meet again after their shocking final in Melbourne, where the Spaniard overcame the 2-0 loss to celebrate the 21st Grand Slam title of his career.

Nadal lost just 10 points to Paul in the first set, but there was a real struggle in the second set and Nadal had to fight hard against his 11-year-old, in unbearable heat and humidity.

“I think I played one of the best first sets in a long time,” Rafa said of the first set. “I played fantastic in the first one. I made some mistakes early in the second one and Tommy started playing better and better. It became a crazy set with a lot of breaks.”

Paul led three times with a break in the second set (1:0, 3:2, 4:3), but Nadal reacted immediately (1:1, 3:3, 5:5) and after losing two match points per hour, the Paul served to stay in the match when the score was 5-6, managed to end the match in a tiebreak.

For the game with Medvedev, Nadal knows that a very difficult match awaits him…

“Everyone knows how difficult an opponent Daniel is. I know I have to play at the highest level to have a chance. I’ll try. I have to play my game. The final in Melbourne was very difficult. It will be tomorrow “I know he’s playing well and with confidence. I’m looking forward to facing him again,” said Nadal.

In the final quarterfinals on Thursday, the trained Cameron Nori defeated Peter Gozovcic 6-1, 6-0 and meets Stefanos Tsitsipas, who was previously defeated by Marcos Giron 6-3, 6-4, for a spot in the Acapulco final.

Source: Tennis24