American Querrey shocks Nadal to lift Acapulco title

Unseeded American Sam Querrey stunned second-seeded Rafael Nadal 6-3, 7-6 (7/3) on Saturday to win the ATP Mexico Open and end the Spaniard’s run of perfection in Acapulco.
Querrey, ranked 40th in the world, fired 19 aces, backed up by powerful, precise groundstrokes, en route to his first career victory over Nadal in five meetings.
The Spaniard, the 2005 and 2013 champion, had never even lost a set in Acapulco.
“I’m ecstatic,” Querrey said. “To do it against Rafa makes it even a little sweeter.”
Querrey captured his ninth ATP title in an impressive week that saw him beat four top-10 players — Belgian David Goffin, Austrian Dominic Thiem, Australian Nick Kyrgios and sixth-ranked Nadal. He’s projected to return to the top 30 in the world rankings today.
“It’s definitely a tournament that I’m going to remember for the rest of my life,” Querrey said. “It’s just one of those weeks where I got in the zone and everything was working for me. I hope I can have more like this.
“After the match against Goffin, I knew I could go far here if I continued to play at that level,” he added. “My forehand and backhand were great and my serve bailed me out of trouble when I needed it.”
Nadal, playing his first tournament since falling to Roger Federer in five sets in the Australian Open final, was denied his first hard court title since Doha in 2014.
Querrey surrendered just four points on his serve in the opening set and he broke Nadal at love to seize a 5-3 advantage.
He served it out comfortably, firing a forehand winner on his second set point after just half an hour. Nadal made more inroads in the second set, but couldn’t convert any of his six break chances.
That included five in the eighth game — three of which Querrey neutralised with aces.
They went on serve to the tiebreaker, where Nadal faltered first. A brace of baseline errors from Nadal gave Querrey a 6-3 lead and a chance to serve for the title, with Nadal sending a forehand long on the American’s first match point.
“He played very well, almost reaching perfection,” Nadal said. “I played under a lot of pressure because of his serve and baseline game. He left me with very few options, and the few I had he also played good.”
Ukraine’s Lesia Tsurenko nabbed her third WTA Tour title, toppling second-seeded Kristina Mladenovic 6-1, 7-5 in the Mexican Open final at Acapulco.
Tsurenko, the seventh seed who advanced when top-seeded Mirjana Lucic-Baroni retired from their semi-final with illness, got off to a hot start and held on to notch her fourth win over France’s Mladenovic in five career meetings.
Tsurenko has now won a title in each of the past three years — emerging triumphant in all three of her career finals appearances.
Tsurenko rolled to a 5-0 lead and in a second set in which service breaks were the norm she earned what proved the decisive break in the 11th game and then held for the win.
Mladenovic was denied a second career title to go with the St. Petersburg trophy she lifted last month.

Cuevas wins to set up third consecutive final in Brazil
Pablo Cuevas beat Spanish top seed Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3 7-6(2) on Saturday to set himself for a chance of a third consecutive Brasil Open title.
The Uruguayan, who beat Carreno Busta in the final of the claycourt event last year, broke twice in the first five games to seal the first set before toppling his opponent in a second set tiebreak. He will face another Spaniard, Albert Ramos-Vinolas, in the final. The second seed survived a match point to record a 6-7(5) 7-5 6-2 win over Portuguese fourth seed Joao Sousa.
Sousa held match point while serving at 5-4 in the second set but Ramos-Vinolas swiped that away with a forehand down the line that the Portuguese netted. Cuevas has won three his four previous meetings with Ramos-Vinolas.