Rafael Nadal opened a second straight match with a bagel set, but was made to work for an Acapulco quarter-final victory over Tommy Paul on Thursday.
The 6-0, 7-6(5) win sets up a rematch with Daniil Medvedev in the semis after the Spaniard's five-set Australian Open final comeback earned him a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam title. For both men, the Mexican Open is their first event since Melbourne.
Against Paul on Thursday, Nadal dropped just 10 points in the opening set but met real resistance beyond that in hot and humid conditions.
The fourth seed dictated early before the American began to use his athleticism to great effect, regularly getting the better of rallies in a second set that lasted over 90 minutes.
"I think I played one of the best sets since a long time ago," Nadal said of the opener. "I played fantastic in the first set. At the beginning of the second, I made a couple of mistakes, and then he started playing better and better. The set became a little bit crazy with a lot of breaks."
Cameron Norrie followed with a 6-1, 6-0 win over Germany's Peter Gojowczyk. The sixth-seeded Briton wasted little time in closing out the Acapulco evening slate, winning 10 straight games to reach a second ATP Tour semi-final in as many weeks.
He'll face third seed Stefanos Tsitsipas in the semis, after the Greek cruised past Marcos Giron, 6-3, 6-4, earlier in the day.
( With inputs from ANI )
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