Photo: Héctor Vivas / Getty Images
By: EFE Updated 25 Feb 2022, 10: 08 am EST
The Spaniard Rafael Nadal defeated American Tommy Paul this Thursday 6-0, 7-6(5) and agreed to the semifinal of the Mexican Tennis Open, which will play against Russian Daniil Medvedev.
In the first set Nadal, winner of 21 Grand Slam tournaments, passed over Paul; the Spaniard won all the points with the first serve and hurt his rival’s serve with three breaks in a row.
Paul, number 39 of the ranking, was another player in the second round, he made a break for the Manacorí and by keeping his serve, he went ahead 2-0. Rafa kept calm and in the fourth ‘game’ he leveled the score at 2-2.
Paul’s best game was the fifth; he achieved a spectacular point in the net and broke by placing a ball on the line after an extended player to regain the lead, 3-2, however, he could not confirm and, again, the set was equalized.
The fight continued. Persistent, the American made his third break in game seven, leading 5-3 on serve, but Rafa held serve and broke on the tenth ‘game’ to provoke the ‘tie break’, in which he came from behind and won 7-5.
In the semifinals, Nadal will face Medvedev this Friday, whom he defeated in the final of the Australian Open, winner 6-2, 6-3 of Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka.
Medvedev, who will wake up on Monday as number one of the ATP list,
did not have his best performance with the service, which was broken three times,
but still eliminated Nishioka in 1 hour and 10 minutes.
In another quarterfinal duel, this Thursday the Greek Third-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas beat American Marcos Girón 6-3, 6-4
and agreed to the phase of the four best, in which he will face the best between the British Cameron Norrie, seeded sex, and the German Peter Gojowczyk.The Mexican Open takes place on a hard court with a prize pool of 1,832,890 million dollars). With ATP category 500, is the most prestigious tournament in Latin America, one of the favorites by players.