Rafael Nadal Advances to Semi-Finals of Mexico Open

Rafael Nadal secured his third ATP Mexico Open semis appearance by breezing past South Korea's Kwon Soon-woo 6-2, 6-1 in their quarter-final clash on Thursday in Acapulco, Mexico according to an article by RTL Today. Nadal is currently ranked No. 2 in the world in men's singles tennis by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP).

The 33-year old Nadal breezed into the semi-finals with his best performance of the week as he continues to drive his way through the men's singles draw.

The Spanish baller finished the night with 25 winners to 11 unforced errors, and saved all eight break points he faced.

"The match has been much tougher than what the result said. I think it was a beautiful match to see," Nadal said. "It was a good match against a tough opponent. I think he's going to have a very good tennis career," he commented about Kwon.

According to an article by Yahoo, Nadal won the first five games of the match and produced a 'ridiculous' winner to highlight his dominance.

Miomir Kecmanovic, might have appeared to be on the verge of winning a point in the fourth game, but the Spaniard ripped a crazy winner down the line from way behind the baseline.

"You are kidding me," one TV commentator said.

"That is ridiculous," the co-commentator added.

Tennis fans were also searching for the superlatives to describe his winning streak.

Next up for Nadal is Grigor Dimitrov, who beat third seed Stan Wawrinka 6-4, 6-4 earlier in the day, ending a five-match losing streak against the Swiss Wawrinka. The 2014 champion has now won five of 12 career meetings between the two and improved to 11-2 overall at this tournament.

By winning in straight sets over Kwon, Nadal established his record to 18-2 overall at the Acapulco event. Kwon may have kept the games close but didn't have much to show for it in the final scoreline.

The 28-year old Dimitrov improved to 7-4 this season and is through to his first semi-final of the year.

According the RTL Today article if the Bulgarian wants to reach the final in Acapulco, he will need to end another losing skid because Nadal leads their career meetings by a whopping 12-1.

"Dimitrov finished last year much better than how he had played the rest of that year. He started to play some good tennis and is showing it here, winning some very good matches," Nadal said. "I'm going to need my best and I hope I'm ready to make it happen."

Meanwhile, world no.1 Novak Djokovic extended his undefeated start to this season to a perfect 16-0 on Thursday after a dominant 6-2 6-2 win over Karen Khachanov, reaching the semi-finals in Dubai.

In an article by Tennishead, Nadal has admitted earlier this week that he doesn't want Novak Djokovic to win more Grand Slam titles than him, a candid admission after responding to a reporter's question which he followed by a statement that he was rooting for Dominic Thiem to beat the Serb in the final.

The tennis world 'big three' have always been quite guarded in what they say about the competition for records between them.  With Djokovic in the top spot, he becomes the subject of other baller's aspiration for world title domination. But Rafael Nadal stressed his statement is not actively targeting Djokovic's world number one spot.