Rafa Nadal continues unstoppable. The Spanish tennis player once again beat Daniil Medvedev, virtual number one in the ATP, to seal the ticket to his fifth final in Acapulco. The man from Manacor has chained 14 consecutive victories in his best start to the season and confirms his great form against the best ranked tennis players. Of the last eleven matches against the top-10 they have only conceded four defeats, just one in the last five duels against rivals of this condition.
“For me it is a victory of a high level that helps me and that confirms that things are going in a very positive way”, declared Rafa Nadal, number 5 of the ATP, after beating the virtual number one, the Russian, in the semifinal of Acapulco. Daniil Medvedev in two sets (6-3 and 6-3). “Rafa is in very good shape right now. If you want to beat him, you have to give your best version,” his rival said later, after saying goodbye to the Mexican tournament in his first participation.
Nadal is at a great level, which has allowed him to chain 14 consecutive victories at the start of the season, a situation that he had not experienced until now and that allows him to comfortably lead the ATP Race, no matter what happens in the final against Cameron Norrie in Acapulco. The Spaniard has achieved this feat by getting rid of several top-10s along the way: twice against Daniil Medvedev and once against Matteo Berrettini.
And it is that one of the evidences of the great moment that Nadal is going through is his great record against the players ranked among the top ten rackets. A trend that he was already setting before his foot forced him to put the brakes on last summer: the top Grand Slam winner has won seven of the last eleven duels played against top 10 tennis players.
Confirms the trend against the top-10
In the 2020 season, marked by the break due to the pandemic, Nadal presented negative numbers in his direct confrontations against tennis players ranked among the top ten in the ranking. Of the eight matches he had against rivals in this category, the Spaniard conceded five defeats and only three wins . Already last year he managed to even the contest with four wins for four losses.
This year, Nadal has remained undefeated despite the fact that of the fourteen games played to date he has faced a top-10 three times, those against Daniil Medvedev and Berrettini. In total, of the last eleven meetings against the ten best in the world, Nadal has won seven games and has only lost in one of the last five – the Roland Garros semifinal against Novak Djokovic.
In the Acapulco final, Nadal will face Cameron Norrie . The British tennis player also arrives in great shape and with a lot of confidence after winning the tournament in Delray Beach, his third title as a professional. The tennis player beat Stefanos Tsitsipas by double 6-4 and chained his eighth consecutive victory in disputed semifinals. In addition, Norrie, current number 12 in the ATP, has a shot at getting into the top ten in the world for the first time in his career. The Balearic commands 3-0 in the duels against the British.
