Rafael Nadal continues to ride a wave of success after his triumph at the Australian Open. The 21-time Grand Slam winner made the best start to the season of his great career perfect at the ATP tournament in Acapulco.
After beating the American Stefan Kozlov 6-0, 6-3, Nadal now has twelve wins without defeat in 2022.
Eight years ago, after eleven wins, Nadal lost to Swiss Stan Wawrinka, now the Spaniard easily reached the quarter-finals and will face Tommy Paul (USA) there. “Today it was a smooth win, that’s good news,” said Nadal: “And I’ll try to be ready again tomorrow against a tough opponent.”
In the semifinals, the 35-year-old could then meet Russian Daniil Medvedev in a repeat of the Melbourne final. Medvedev easily solved his task against Nadal’s compatriot Pablo Andujar 6: 1, 6: 2 and still has the best chance of taking over number one in the world rankings in a long-distance duel with Novak Djokovic, who also made the round of the last eight at the parallel tournament in Dubai reached.
The last German professional in the Acapulco competition is Munich’s Peter Gojowczyk, who after Alexander Zverev’s disqualification reached the quarter-finals without a fight and challenged the British Cameron Norrie there.