Rafael Nadal He is not “released” as he says, he is unleashed in 2022. The 36-year-old is riding the best start to the season of his career with a 15-0 record and three titles: Melbourne, Australian Open and the one won this Saturday in acapulco against Cameron Norrie, a 26-year-old Briton and 12th in the world whom he won by a double 6-4 in hour and 54 minutes. Add 91 in total (three of Lendl’s 94), 25 of them on hard court and four in the Mexican Openhistorically positive for Spanish tennis, which treasures, with this, 13 trophies (those of Rafa, four of Ferrer, two of Moyá, two of Almagro and one of Clavet).
Nadal has not lost since August 5, 2021, when South African Harris beat him in Washington, he has won 13 straight sets since 0-2 against Medvedev in Australia and has 23 wins against southpaws. In the tournament his streak is 10 wins and 20 sets, and he is its youngest champion (18 years old in 2005) and also the oldest (35 this year). In addition, he moves up one place in the ranking, to fourth, ahead of Tsitsipas. It is the pear, like the flirtatious prize he received and the mariachi hat that he put on in the presence of Carlos Moyá, Francis Roig, Rafa Maymó and his uncles Miguel Ángel and Rafa, before 10,000 dedicated spectators. “It’s a very important title for me,” she noted.
Nadal started at a slow pace, somewhat erratic and static, nothing serious because he kept his serve without problems and found the aim and sensations necessary to break that of the much improved Norrie in the fifth game with a lethal passer. The merit of the tennis player born in South Africa, raised in New Zealand and a university student in the United States, recent winner in Delray Beach, was not leaving the match at the first difficulty. However, he could not get too close to the possibility of adding a break with which to cancel the advantage of the Spanish, who he was especially animated in a very disputed point that he won with recovered and agile movements.
After a visit to the locker room to change his soaked clothes from top to bottom, Rafa came back even more dynamic. Another great passing gave him the option to add a new break with a later down the line drive. Cam, very frustrated, broke his racket, but then he calmed down and three mistakes by Nadal gave him a 0-40 that he took advantage of to equalize. Again good attitude and again insufficient.
The serve, to the rescue
The man from Manaco played with many firsts (79%) and that gave him the opportunity to stop an increasingly solid opponent from the baseline and with a topspin left-handed effect in the hit very similar to his. “He’s a player that makes you feel like you’re not comfortable,” he explained. The tranquility allowed him to put pressure on the rest and he obtained the break for 3-2 and service, to which he added another one immediately after and definitive, despite the fact that Norrie shortened distances due to a mistake by the champion. The history of the best of the best continues more alive than ever. His legend has no end.
