Spanish tennis player Rafael Nadal celebrates his victory over Britain’s Cameron Norrie. /
The Spaniard, with the best start of his career in his pocket, secures the fourth title in Acapulco
Rafael Nadal’s longevity is an absolute box of surprises. After five months without competing, with a foot injury that threatened to retire him, the Spaniard has signed the best start to the season of his sports career, has won the fourth title in Acapulco and has 91 wounds in total.
Nadal is already the tennis player, along with David Ferrer, who has won the most times in Acapulco, and is also the youngest to win the title, when he won it at the age of 18 in 2005, and the oldest, having done so in this 2022 with 35. The age of the tennis player is not an impediment for him to be living one of the sweetest moments of his career.
Despite everything that happened in 2021, with the loss of the crown at Roland Garros and the serious injury, Nadal has started 2022 with victories at the ATP 250 in Melbourne, at the Australian Open and in Acapulco. Three wins on hard court to achieve a cushion of 2,750 points that will allow him to choose the rest of the season with less trouble.
Cameron Norrie was not a great obstacle for Nadal to close his week in Mexico with a smile. The Briton, who had just won Delray Beach and was seeking his fourth career title in this final, had lost the previous three duels against the Spaniard without achieving a set. And this time the film did not change. A double 6-4 in almost two hours served for the Spaniard to round off a tournament in which he has not lost a set and has charged the new number one in the world, Daniil Medvedev, along the way. Precisely since he lost the second set against the Russian in the final in Australia, Nadal has won thirteen consecutive sets.
The next stop to continue adding weight to this record will be in Indian Wells, where the first Masters 1,000 of the season starts on March 10, the only one that, if all goes well, Nadal will play in the United States before making the jump to the tour of beaten ground
In the Coachella desert, Nadal could equal Pete Sampras and Roger Federer, who managed to start the season with 17 wins and no losses. The American did it in 1998, before losing in the second round at Indian Wells, while the Swiss set that mark four years ago, before losing in the Indian Wells final to Juan Martin del Potro. The best start in history is already much bigger words and dates back to when Novak Djokovic linked 41 wins in a row at the beginning of 2011. Only Federer could stop him in the semifinals of Roland Garros.
In addition, Nadal comfortably leads the race to Turin, where the ATP Finals will be played for the second consecutive year, although the Spaniard missed the 2021 due to a foot problem. The man from Manacor leads Medvedev by 1075 points, who this Monday will pass Djokovic in the general classification to become the third Russian number one, 27th in total, and the first different from Djokovic, Federer, Nadal and Andy Murray since Andy Roddick in February 2004.
Nadal, in the general table, rises to fourth place, with 6,515 points, 1,000 behind Alexander Zverev, who is third, and 2,000 behind Medvedev.
