This week, the city of acapulco, Mexico is one of the focusing points of professional tennis having both the ATP and the WTA circuits on the map. The women's singles in Acapulco is a 280 event, while men's tennis has another ATP 500 tournament in place. Things are all set, and the men's contest has quite a herd eager to display some quality tennis. Djokovic is the leading violin of the first half of the draw while Rafael Nadal captures the 2nd one. The Spaniard will play his first ATP event after the Australian Open's final where he lost to Roger Federer.
Nadal benefits from Raonic's withdrawal
Initially, Nadal was supposed to be the 3rd seed, but yesterday's development at Delray Beach Open in Florida forced Milos Raonic to take some time off due to a hamstring tear on his right leg. That gives a burst to Nadal that will stay away from a collision with Djokovic unless they both reach the final. According to the draw, the Spaniard is set to make his first round appearance against Mischa Zverev (30 ATP). The German produced some shocking waves last month when he dismantled Andy Murray, the world no. 1, in Australian Open 4th round. From a technical point of view, it'll an interesting duel as both Nadal and Zverev are left-handed players. Besides, Nadal always problems when playing against a left-handed opponent such as Verdasco in the past.
If he gets past Zverev, Nadal's road will be an apparently easier one. For the upcoming stages maybe Jack Sock or Marin Cilic would be able to cause some issues to the Spaniard. With the current draw, there are hopes to have a Djokovic vs Nadal final, but the Serb got himself a hellish path with real dangerous players sitting in his part of the draw.
Nadal is entitled to hope for great results
The Spaniard's amazing run at the Australian reestablished him as a top opponent and a genuine candidate of winning Grand Slams in 2017. It was only the genius side of Federer preventing him from clinching his 2nd Australian Open as the Swiss made a dream comeback in the 5th set of the final. But the way Nadal played in Melbourne it was really an impressive statement that he is willing to stick around the men's tennis top for few more years.
