(CNN)Rafa Nadal extended his winning streak to 12 games in 2022 in his best start to the season of his career, beating American Stefan Kozlov 6-0, 6-3 in Acapulco on Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals of the ATP 500 tournament.
The 21-time Grand Slam champion, a three-time winner in the coastal city, arrived in Mexico after winning a tuneup event of the Australian Open and the hard court major in Melbourne last month after ending part of 2021 with one foot problem had missed.
Kozlov was the Spaniard’s training partner on Monday when he was called up in the peloton as a last-minute replacement for injured Frenchman Maxime Cressy.
Aside from a brief streak in the second set when he converted his only break point chance in the competition, Kozlov was no match for Nadal, whose best start to date came 11-0 in 2014 with a loss to Switzerland’s Stan Wawrinka in the final of the Australian open ended.
Next up for the 35-year-old is another 39th-ranked American, Tommy Paul, who may face top-seeded Russian Daniil Medvedev in the semifinals, whom he defeated by two sets in the Australian Open final.
“It’s always important to win as soon as possible, but the most important thing is to win,” Nadal said after his victory in an hour and 16 minutes in hot and muggy conditions.
“There were straight sets tonight, that’s great news and I’ll try to be ready again tomorrow against a strong opponent.”
Medvedev previously defeated Pablo Andújar 6-1, 6-2 and was three wins away from winning the tournament and rising to world number one for the first time.
Medvedev pretended to serve stealthily at match point, hitting his seventh ace instead and eliciting a smile from the 68th-placed Spaniard, who played well but failed to break the Russian’s solid defense.
Next, Medvedev meets Japanese qualifier Yoshihito Nishioka and a title for the Russian on Sunday will guarantee his rise to world number one, replacing Serbian Novak Djokovic.
World number four Stefanos Tsitsipas also wasted little time as he sprinted American qualifier JJ Wolf, French Open finalist, to a 6-1, 6-0 win in just 47 minutes in the final game of the night on the main show court.
It was the 23-year-old Greek’s fastest win of his career and he next meets American Marcos Giron in 59th place, who had previously beaten Spain’s Pablo Carreño Busta 6-7 (7) 6-4 7-6 ( 4) defeated. for a spot in the semifinals.
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