February 27, (THEWILL) – Rafa Nadal won the Mexican Open on Saturday when he defeated Cameron Norris 6-4, 6-4 to earn his 91st ATP title and improve his career-best start to a season to 15 straight wins.
Norrie was attempting to become the first British man to win the Mexican Open in its 29-year history and he was on an unbeaten run of his own: an eight-game winning streak. But, in Acapulco, where Nadal is a fan favourite, the Spaniard won for the fourth time, after previous wins in 2005, 2013, and 2020.
Both players showed their good form in the first set as the final followed serve until Nadal broke in the fifth game of the match to take a 3-2 lead. The Spaniard did not look back from there and went on to win the opening set 6-4 in 51 minutes.
Nadal had a break in the first game of the second set on the back of the momentum from the first set. However, Norrie reclaimed it and appeared to be back in the match, but the Spaniard added breaks in the fifth and seventh games to win the second set and claim the title.
The 35-year-old Spaniard, who made this his third trophy in 2022, adding it to the Australian Open which earned him a record 21st Grand Slam singles title, is now three wins away from tying Ivan Lendl for third place in the open era with 94 titles. Jimmy Connors has 109, while Roger Federer has 103 to his name.
Feliciano Lopez and Stefanos Tsitsipas won the doubles final 7-5, 6-4 over Marcelo Arevalo and Jean-Julien Rojer.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
