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The Spanish Rafael Nadalnumber 5 in the world ranking, was crowned champion of the Mexican Open of Tennis-2022 after beating the British Cameron Norrie (12/ATP) in two sets with double 6-4, in the final played at the GNP Seguros Arena in Acapulco.
Nadal, seeded fourth in the tournament, beat sixth-seeded Norrie in one hour, 54 minutes, 39 seconds. It was the Spaniard’s fourth win against the Briton in four career clashes.
In the final, Norrie proved to be the most difficult rival that Nadal had throughout the tournament, and for this reason they got involved in a first set in which there were practically no errors, just a double fault from the Briton who played more aggressive tennis. than in previous rounds.
For his part, the Spaniard began bowling short and with the passing of the points he had increasingly powerful and placed services and shots, and also took advantage of the only break opportunity that presented itself in the set to win it in 51 minutes and 17 seconds. .
At the start of the second round, Nadal remained focused and precise in the return and anticipated that he would seek the victoria in straight sets by breaking his opponent’s serve at the first opportunity to take a 1-0 lead.
The annoyance and frustration were evident in Norrie, who crashed his racket against the court when he saw himself down on the board, but the Briton focused and put ‘la Fiera de Manacor’ in trouble.
A triple ‘break point’ wasted by Norrie
With Nadal serving, Norrie had a triple break point in his favor and although he squandered it he had a fourth chance and took advantage of it to recover the break, then served to take a 2-1 lead.
Although he played him without complexes, Norrie was no longer consistent on his serve and suffered two more breaks with which the Spaniard was on his way to winning the set, the match and the championship.
“It wasn’t my best match of the tournament, but looking on the positive side, it was against one of the fittest players on the tour. Norrie has an uncomfortable game, he has the virtue of making the rival feel so that he cannot play comfortably, he makes you make difficult decisions and makes you think playing », Nadal said at a press conference.
Regarding his performance on the court, the man from Manaco pointed out that “I made good use of my break opportunities, I raised the net in the important moments, I also threw some parallel drives, I think they were good, my serve worked well”.
For his part, Cameron Norrie commented that in this final Rafaek Nadal “played a little better in the biggest moments; I gave him a couple of easy points and he didn’t give me anything, he was too solid for me and just lacked a bit of focus, but all credit to him, he’s too good.”
Rafael Nadal reached 15 consecutive wins at the start of the season and won the Mexican Open for the fourth time in history to tie the tournament’s top winners: Austrian Thomas Muster and Spaniard David Ferrer.
At 35 years old, Nadal won the 91st singles title in his career, the third in 2022 after winning the Melbourne tournament and the Australian Open, his 21st Grand Slam.
Earlier in the doubles tournament final, the Spaniard Feliciano Lopez and the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas became champions by defeating the Salvadoran Marcelo Arévalo and the Dutchman Jean-Julien Rojer with partial 7-5 and 6-4.
The couple made up of López and Tsitsipas prevailed over the binomial made up of Arévalo and Rojer in one hour with 34 minutes and 15 seconds.
Saturday results
-Final individual:
Rafael Nadal (ESP/N.4) defeated Cameron Norrie (GBR/N.6) 6-4, 6-4
-Double Final:
Feliciano López (ESP)/Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) defeated Marcelo Arevalo (ESA)/Jean-Julien Rojer (NED) 7-5, 6-4
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