Now it's official: Rafael Nadal will be part of the Abierto Mexicano Telcel. The Spaniard had been named for the ATP World Tour 500 event in Acapulco for a long time, but it was not clear whether the Australian Open winner, who was no longer quite so freshly crowned, would not still do so after the Grand Slam tour de force in January want to give yourself a little more regeneration time.

This is definitely not the case. As can be read on the Twitter news service, the "Bull from Manacor" left Madrid Airport to the west at the beginning of the week. The perfect preparation conditions in Mexico for the two ATP Masters 1000 events in Indian Wells and Miami were probably decisive for participation.

Five of the top six in Mexico

The Mallorcan will be fourth seeded at the hard court event in Central America and has fond memories of the tourist resort on the Pacific coast. Because in 2020 Nadal was able to win the title in Acapulco - in the final, the current fifth in the world rankings clearly defeated the American Taylor Fritz 6: 3, 6: 2. The Iberian also won the traditional event in 2013 (against David Ferrer) and 2005 (against Albert Montanes).

Those responsible for the tournament can look forward to an excellent field of participants, even apart from the 21-time Grand Slam champion. With Daniil Medvedev, Alexander Zverev, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Matteo Berrettini and Rafael Nadal, five of the six top players on the American continent are at the start. Only Novak Djokovic is present at the parallel event in Dubai.