Another day, another history-making performance from Rafael Nadal. This time, the history was of the personal variety following a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Stefan Kozlov at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC.

In his first tournament since winning a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam at the Australian Open, Nadal has improved to a career-best 12-0 start to the new season. Nadal started the 2014 season with 11 straight wins before losing to Stan Wawrinka in the Australian Open final.

After title runs at the Melbourne Summer Set and the Aussie Open, the Spaniard is seeking his third tour-level trophy of the season and the 91st of his legendary career. His path to the title could run through Daniil Medvedev, the man chasing the No. 1 ATP Ranking, should both win one more match and advance to the semi-finals.

After leading, 6-0, 4-1, in Wednesday’s match against Kozlov, Nadal found himself back on serve with his opponent two points from levelling the set.

“A little bit of a strange match,” Nadal assessed. “Kozlov has a different style than most other players, so you need to be very careful. Sometimes you are able to win points in a row, but then if you start to play at his rhythm, it’s very difficult because he has great control from the baseline and he’s very smart.”

Avoiding the sort of marathon match the Acapulco stadium court has become accustomed to in recent days, Nadal won the final seven points of the match to get through to the quarter-finals in just over an hour. The Spaniard was dominant on the return as he converted five of six break chances, winning more than half of his points against Kozlov’s first serve.

“Always it’s important to win as quick as possible,” Nadal added, “but the most important thing is to win. Tonight has been straight sets, that’s great news, and I’ll try to be ready for tomorrow again against a tough opponent.”

After beating Denis Kudla and Kozlov in the opening rounds, Nadal will face another American in Tommy Paul in the quarter-finals. Paul was a 7-6(6), 2-6, 7-5 winner over Dusan Lajovic earlier on Wednesday.

This one goes to 12 💪

For the first time in his career, @RafaelNadal starts a season with 12 consecutive wins, defeating Stefan Kozlov 6-0 6-3 at #AMT2022 pic.twitter.com/wFxQ5iP1WG

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 24, 2022

After a pair of dominant wins from Nadal and Medvedev opened play on the Acapulco stadium court, Stefanos Tsitsipas upped the ante with the fastest victory of his career. His 6-1, 6-0 sprint past American J.J. Wolf clocked in at just 47 minutes, the Greek surrendering 16 total points in the contest.

“I would say I was patiently attacking. I wasn’t going for too much, but I also wasn’t going for too little,” the philosophical Greek reflected. “It felt great out there. It felt like I could control the points from both sides of the court and I felt very much in control throughout the entire match.

“I felt like my serve was working when I needed it. I just felt very comfortable with every single stroke and every single decision I had to make.”

He’ll next face another American in Marcos Giron, a 6-7(7), 6-4, 7-6(4) winner over eighth seed Pablo Carreno Busta.

Giron and Paul were the only two American winners out of six in action on Wednesday. Seventh seed Taylor Fritz dropped a 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 decision to Japan’s Yoshihito Nishioka, while John Isner fell to sixth seed and newly crowned Delray Beach champion Cameron Norrie, 6-7(2), 6-3, 6-4.

Nishioka will face Medvedev in the last eight, while Norrie takes on Peter Gojowczyk. All four Acapulco quarter-finals are set for Thursday.

It was a big day for Argentina in neighbouring Chile on Wednesday, with four men bidding to reach the quarter-finals in Santiago. Sebastian Baez and 2021 finalist Facundo Bagnis advanced, the latter beating countryman Juan Ignacio Londero.

Seventh seed Baez opened play at the Chile Dove Men+Care Open with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Londero, eighth seed Bagnis following with a 6-2, 6-2 result against Hugo Dellien.

Baez broke serve seven times in the match and won more than half of his return points against both first and second serves. With 12 games going against serve in total, the match featured more breaks than holds.

“I feel good on the court in this place,” the Buenos Aires native said after the win. “It’s difficult to feel at home, and here in Chile I feel that. That’s something extra for the tournament and for my tennis, and that’s the most important, I think.”

Baez now holds a 24-2 record in Chile at the ATP Tour and ATP Challenger Tour level since the start of 2021, including three Challenger titles.

The 21-year-old advances to his second quarter-final of 2022 (Cordoba), where he’ll face Monteiro. A former junior world No. 1 and a six-time Challenger champion in 2021, Baez is making his second appearance at the Santiago ATP 250 event after qualifying last year. The Argentine is seeking his first ATP Tour final after rising from outside the Top 300 at the start last season to a career-high ATP Ranking of No. 72 earlier this month.

“It’s a second quarter-final [for me], so it’s a new chance to try to be better,” he previewed. “I think it’s a new opportunity to play with another great player and try to do all my best.”

Third seed Fernando Delbonis was on course to set up an all-Argentine quarter-final against Baez, but could not close out his opening match after taking the first set against Thiago Monteiro. Instead, the 27-year-old Brazilian reached his second quarter-final of the season (Adelaide 2) with a 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 upset.

Bagnis cruised into the quarter-finals as he rounds into form following a slow start to the season. Winless since his opening match of the year against Andy Murray at the Melbourne Summer Set, the 31-year-old has put together two dominant victories on the Chilean clay.

He’s dropped just seven games in reaching his first ATP Tour quarter-final since a run to the Santiago title match one year ago, when he fell to Chile’s Cristian Garin. After facing no break points in an opening-round win against Spain’s Barnabe Zapata Miralles, Bagnis saved one of two in Wednesday’s win over Bolivia’s Dellien. He next faces second seed Albert Ramos-Vinolas, a 6-2, 7-6(4) winner over compatriot Carlos Taberner in the Santiago nightcap.

Daniil Medvedev looked every bit a World No. 1 in his 6-1, 6-2 demolition of Spain’s Pablo Andujar on Wednesday in Acapulco.

After a hardfought win over Benoit Paire in his debut at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC, the Russian completed a never-in-doubt route to advance to the quarter-finals.

Knowing a title on Sunday guarantees him the top spot in the ATP Rankings, Medvedev showed no signs of stress in a strong outing. He raced to leads of 5-0 in the first and 4-0 in the second, wrapping up the match in just over an hour — in stark contrast to the parade of marathon matches on the stadium court earlier in the week.

“I’m lucky two days in a row not to play at midnight like some other guys,” the World No. 2 said post-match. “It’s pretty tough conditions, quite humid. Even if we play at night it’s quite hot… The faster the matches, the better you’re going to feel for the next one.”

Despite just nine unforced errors in the match, Andujar could not cope with Medvedev’s baseline brilliance, the Russian saving the lone break point he faced with a big serve early in the contest. 

“Pablo is a very tough opponent, so I knew that from the first point to the last point I would have to fight, to play my best tennis,” Medvedev added. “I’m happy I was able to [execute] my plan. It was enough today to win and I’m really happy about it.”

With the match in hand late, Medvedev began experimenting with his drop shot to mixed results. Playing along, Andujar attempted to spring an underarm serve as the match raced towards its conclusion. The Russian answered back with an underarm fake on match point, before ending the match with his seventh ace.

The top seed will face seventh seed Taylor Fritz or wild card Yoshihito Nishioka in the quarter-finals. Rafael Nadal, who plays American Stefan Kozlov in the second round, remains a potential semi-final opponent.

Two down, three to go ✌️@DaniilMedwed eases into the quarter-finals at Acapulco with a 6-1 6-2 victory over Pablo Andujar. #AMT2022 pic.twitter.com/Mh7k3RVBB4

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) February 24, 2022

The ATP has confirmed its calendar for the second half of the 2022 ATP Tour season.

Today’s announcement marks a return to a regular Q3 and Q4 schedule of events, following extensive adjustments in previous seasons due to COVID-19. Following The Championships, Wimbledon, the ATP Tour will continue charting its course through marquee global cities, building towards the Intesa Sanpaolo Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan and the season-ending Nitto ATP Finals in Turin. All in, the season is set to feature 66 events across 30 countries.

The calendar also includes the relocation of the St. Petersburg Open (ATP 250) to Nur-Sultan, following more than 25 editions of the event. The Kazakh capital city played host to its first ATP tournament in 2020, issued as a single-year licence to expand playing opportunities and explore new markets for professional tennis, before hosting a second event in 2021.

The ATP continues to take a fluid approach to the calendar and the schedule remains subject to change. Any further updates will be communicated in due course.

View the full 2022 calendar here.

Nikola Mektic and Mate Pavic reached the semi-finals at a tour-level event for the first time this season on Wednesday, downing Belgians Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen 6-4, 7-3(3) at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships.

The top seeds won nine tour-level crowns in 2021, but are still seeking their first trophy in 2022. They saved the one break point they faced to advance after 89 minutes. The Croatians are aiming to go one step further in Dubai this week, after enjoying a run to the final last year.

The Croatians will next play third seeds Filip Polasek and John Peers after the Poles received a walkover from Hubert Hurkacz and Jannik Sinner.

Fourth seeds Tim Puetz and Michael Venus booked their spot in the quarter-finals with a 4-6, 6-1, 10-5 win over lucky losers Jonathan Erlich and Jan-Lennard Struff.

Puetz and Venus clinched tour-level trophies in Hamburg and Paris last season. The German-New Zealand tandem will next take on Andrey Golubev and Fabrice Martin.

Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski moved into the last eight after second seeds Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury were forced to retire during the match. Koolhoof and Skupski were leading 7-6(4) when the action was stopped.