Nadal sails into Acapulco quarter-finals

The Spaniard hit 20 winners as he kept alive his hopes of regaining the top ranking. With the 6-2, 7-5 victory over the 20-year-old Kecmanovic, Nadal reached the quarter-finals at the Acapulco hard court tournament. “He’s a very dangerous player. He is young and has a lot of power. I’m very pleased with the victory,” said Nadal.

“I played a very good first set and that’s important for me. That gives me confidence.” Next up for Nadal is South Korea’s Kwon Soon-woo, who reached his fourth quarter-final of the month with a 7-6 (7/2), 6-0 upset of eighth seed Dusan Lajovic (Serbia). Kwon had reached the last eight stage in Pune, New York and Delray Beach.

After the success, Nadal improved his ratio to 17-2 overall at this event. He needs to take the Acapulco title and hope Serbian Novak Djokovic loses his semi-final match at this week’s Dubai Tennis Championships to regain top spot. On Wednesday, Nadal roared to a 5-0 lead in the first set, thanks to some superb serving and clutch winners.

In the second set, Nadal broke the Serb for a 5-3 lead. But, Kecmanovic broke back in the next game and held serve to level the set at 5-5. Nadal, who made 17 unforced errors, clinched the contest on the first match point when Kecmanovic blasted a forehand return well wide.

The other quarter-finals feature third-seeded Stan Wawrinka (Switzerland) against Grigor Dimitrov (Bulgaria), Taylor Fritz (USA) versus Kyle Edmund (Great Britain), and fifth seed John Isner (USA) against qualifier Tommy Paul (USA).