Rafael Nadal experienced the suffering this Thursday for the first time at the 2022 Mexican Open. Under tremendous heat conditions, 28º despite being at night, and 82% humidity in the coastal city of Acapulco, The Spaniard sweated profusely to beat Tommy Paul in two sets (6-0 and 7-6 (5)) and a little over two hours. The scoreboard, loose in the first quarter with the 114th donut of Nadal’s career, does not reflect the suffering endured by the winner of 21 Grand Slams to add his 13th consecutive victory in the best season start of his career. Absolutely soaked, pulling sawdust to dry their hands and with difficulty for the supports when having the waterlogged shoes (“My fault for not bringing others,” he acknowledged later)the opportunity was given face Daniil Medvedev again in the semi-finals on Fridaywhich will be number one in the world from Monday, after the defeat of Novak Djokovic in Dubai.
The attrition, a priori negative, can paradoxically come in handy for Nadal to challenge the Russian, who easily beat Japanese Yoshihito Nishioka (6-2, 6-3 in 70 minutes). The next leader of the ranking is thirsty for “revenge” for the comeback loss he suffered against the Spaniard in the historic final of the Australian Open. But he will run into a tough rival, who celebrated the victory against Paul almost as if it were the title, because any other player would not have been able to win the second round losing his serve three times and after wasting two match points before the final tiebreaker.
“Everyone knows how difficult it is to play against him. I have to be at my highest level to have options, to play my game. It will be another battle against someone who will be very confident, a number one already,” Nadal explained about his next opponent.
heads and tails
“The first one was one of the best sets I’ve played in a long time, fantastic,” Rafa said., and he was right. Paul did not know how to read the boat or the topspin effect of Nadal’s balls and when he was able to interpret it in some way, the man from Manacori had already passed him over, who only lost two points with his serve in 28 minutes of inspiration and offensive tennis . “Then I made a couple of mistakes, he played better and better and there were a lot of breaks,” he analyzed. And it is that the 24-year-old American and 39th in the world, a semifinalist recently in Delray Beach, took a step forward, pressed all the serves very involved on the court and He served almost always open to try to annoy the three-time champion of the tournament, undefeated in the quarterfinals and semifinals. His plan didn’t work out for a bit, especially because of the indomitable race of one of the best players in history, capable of overcoming almost any accident.
