Andújar persisted, made a break in the sixth, but Nadal broke him in the seventh and kept the serve in the eighth to win
Nadal celebrates the victory against Andújar.
The Spanish Rafael Nadal, second of the ATP ranking, he recovered from a slow start to beat his countryman Pablo Andújar on 6-3 and 6-2 on Tuesday and access the knockout stages of the Mexican Tennis Open.
In the Acapulco spa, Andújar made a break in Rafa's first serve that started at a great pace but found an answer to the number 54 of the ranking that confirmed the break to get ahead 2-0.
From there the encounter was dominated by Nadal, who neutralized the good reverse of the opposite. He broke in the fourth game to tie the score 2-2, did it again in the sixth and headed for victory against a fighting Andújar, but he could not against an opponent who found the lucidity of his two-handed backhand.
With 65% of points earned in the first service, Nadal was satisfied with his performance in the initial sleeve and went out to kill in the second in which he broke Andújar's serve in the first game and did it again in the fifth.
Andújar persisted, made a break in the sixth, but Nadal broke him in the seventh and kept the serve in the eighth to win.
Rafa, 33, seeks to conquer the title in Acapulco to retrieve the world number one and arrive in that position to the 1,000 Masters of Indian Welles and Miami.
“The most important thing after a while without competing was winning. I needed a match like today to take a beat, “ said Manacor, winner of 19 Grand Slam tournaments.
In the round of 16, Nadal will face the 20-year-old Serbian Miomir on Wednesday Kecmanovic, who defeated Australian Alex de Minaur 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 on Monday.
In another duel this Tuesday the German Alexander Zverev, second favorite, 7-6 (6), 6-1 Taiwanese Jason Jung. Zverev suffered to decipher the game of the Asian that caused a 'tie break', but in the second he collapsed.
The world number seven will face the American Tommy Paul in the round of 16.
On Tuesday, Canadian Felix Auger-Alliassime, fourth favorite, defeated Australian Alex Bolt 6-3, 7-6 (5), Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov beat 6-3, 6-3 Bosnian Damir Dzumhur and Spaniard Pedro Martinez led the Moldovan Radu Albot 6-3, 6-2.
According to the criteria of
Know more