Rafa Nadal sweeps his premiere in Acapulco

Rafa Nadal returns a ball in his duel against the American Denis Kudla. DAVID GUZMAN GONZALEZ (EFE)

If there is Rafa Nadal, there is applause.

Mexico surrenders to the tennis player.

The main stadium, for 10,400 people, was packed to see him.

Before him, the Russian Danill Medvedev had competed, but the stands seemed deserted.

The box office man is Spanish.

In two sets he took the American Denis Kudla (6-3 and 6-2) out of the way, in a game in which his

were crucial in his first evening in Acapulco.

The Mallorcan made it very clear in his first conference in Mexico: he wants to enjoy playing tennis again.

Last January, at the Australian Open, he pushed his body to the limit to win the tournament and add his twenty-first Grand Slam.

In Acapulco he let himself be loved.

He came out strong in the first set and hit four

against American Denis Kudla, albeit still with a lukewarm carb.

Already in the second set, Nadal stepped on the accelerator to not give the rival a break with another four

.

The serves helped break the guard of the American in a duel of one hour and 16 minutes.

The challenge was important because the hard court of the Acapulco stadium has just been inaugurated and, of course, because of the humidity of playing between 27 and 29 degrees.

Initially, Nadal was going to compete against Reilly Opelka, champion in Dallas, but the American resigned at the last minute.

After beating Kudla, the Spaniard has 12 wins in a row at the start of the season.

In the second round he will face Stefan Kozlov.

Daniil Medvedev wants to be

in tennis driven by the Acapulco breeze.

To keep the throne depends on his racket: if he wins in Mexico, if he reaches the final and Novak Djokovic does not triumph in Dubai, if the Russian reaches the semifinals and the Serbian does not reach the final or if Medvedev manages to get into the second round and his rival does not get into the top four in the emirate.

The runner-up in Australia collided in the first round with Frenchman Benoit Paire.

Medvedev had a rough debut because his rival did not want to give up before the right arm of the Russian who was unstoppable to qualify (6-3 and 6-4) in one hour and 41 minutes.

The Frenchman even had a fit of despair by ripping his shirt in mid-game.

The

in the world does not want surprises in his first time in the Mexican port.

The Italian Matteo Berrettini, in fifth place in the ranking of tennis players, had to leave the game at the edge of the second set (4-6, 5-1) against the American Tommy Paul due to discomfort in the abdominal area.

Berrettini had just landed after playing the ATP in Rio de Janeiro and where he fell in the quarterfinals against the talent of tomorrow from Spain, Carlos Alcaraz.

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