Day 2 of the Acapulco Open last night may not have been as exciting as the opening night, but we at least saw the newly crowned Australian Open champion and his final adversary, in action.
The 21-time Grand Slam winner played some mesmerising tennis, particularly in the second set as he blew American Denis Kudla off the court with some fine shot making skills.
His drop shot was on point and so was his serve, with a few stylish aces.
The way he powered through 6-3, 6-2, to face another American, Stefan Kozlov, makes it likely, that match will have a similar outcome.
In this kind of form; confident, focused, and, motivated, Rafa Nadal will be a threat for anyone, and in particular Daniil Medvedev, who is chasing down the world number one ranking.
If Medvedev is victorious in Acapulco, he will be world number one, regardless of what Novak Djokovic does in Dubai.
In the last 17 years, the monopoly of the top four; Nadal, Djokovic, Roger Federer and Andy Murray, have occupied top spot, but now a new name might make tennis history.
Medvedev was up against Frenchman Benoit Paire, a tricky opponent with his serve and volley, a tactic the world number two can struggle with.
The world number two took the opening set 6-3 and looked in trouble at 4-2 down in the second but mistakes from Paire, combined with some clutch tennis from Medvedev, saw him seal four games on the trot to get off to a winning start.
Medvedev 6-3, 6-4, goes on to face Spain’s Pablo Andújar, who came through comfortably against Mexican wildcard Alex Hernandez, 6-0, 6-1.
A combination of results in Acapulco, Indian Wells and Miami mean Medvedev could be destined to be the new world number one in weeks, and I spoke to him after his match.
I asked Daniil how he looks after his body so well, after seeing friends and rivals on the ATP Tour, all succumb to injuries of late.
He told me that planning his calendar carefully with his team has helped him a lot. In particular, after the five-set epic in Australia against Nadal, he decided to pull out of Rotterdam to rest.
“You have to do your calendar good. Which is not easy. I can only talk for myself. It’s tough to talk for others, like I don’t know what happened to Matteo today,” he said.
“It’s an everyday experience with your team, and every day, learn and work. And we knew that we were going to have this situation. More my team than me, prepare me at the top physical shape,” he added.
“After the Australian Open, I had to pull out from Rotterdam. I played five hours and I went back to Europe on the Tuesday.
“Maybe if I would have played Rotterdam I could have got injured. So, we decided to skip this tournament. But you can never control everything.”
Later on in the night, another star name Stefanos Tsitsipas scraped through as he needed two tie-breaks 7-6, (9-7), 7-6 (7-4) to see off Serbian Laslo Djere.
There were, however, unfortunate injuries. Firstly, to Matteo Berrettini who took the opening set 6-4 against American Tommy Paul and looked to be cruising into the next round.
At 5-1 down in the second, the Italian forfeited the match with what was later known to be an abdominal issue.
Secondly, Australia’s John Millman was forced to pull out of his match against America’s Marcos Giron at 7-6 (7-3) and 2-0 down after a ball bounced into his eye.
Britain’s Cameron Norrie, fresh from winning his third ATP title at the weekend in Delray Beach, overcame German Daniel Altmaier, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.
America’s J.J Wolf beat Italy’s Lorenzo Sonego 3-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-2. While, Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka also came from a set down to beat Spain’s Feliciano Lopez,2-6, 6-0, 6-4.
