- Two of the four favorites in the Top 15 of the Pepperstone ATP Rankings claimed a win on the first day of main draw action
- Shelton and de Miñaur won at the Stadium, while World No. 13 Tommy Paul, a 2023 finalist, was eliminated by Jack Draper
Acapulco, February 26, 2024.- It was a dream start to the tournament for two of the favorites on the opening day and, on the other hand, a surprise for 2023 finalist Tommy Paul. Defending champion Alex de Miñaur and Ben Shelton advanced to the second round after securing victories two of the matches at the Mextenis Stadium.
The young American sensation, Ben Shelton, opened the match at 18:00 hrs against British Daniel Evans, who managed to take advantage in a surprising first set with more first serve winners (91%) and despite the fact that the world No. 16 had a better percentage of effectiveness.
Evans took advantage of a double fault, the few points converted on Shelton’s second serve and his almost no return to surprise the favorite; However, in the second set the 21 year old relied on his best weapon, his serve, to get into the match and finally beat Evans 2-6, 7-5, 7-6(5) in two hours 44 minutes of duel and where although the statistics did not favor him, he finished with 12 aces
key to his victory, one that also comes 30 years after his father and coach, Bryan Shelton, also got a victory in the Mexican tournament.
“I really like the courts here, it’s great conditions for tennis, it’s humid but not that humid, there’s a great atmosphere in the central stadium. I had to change some things in my game to improve my consistency until I felt comfortable in the match, I was making a lot of mistakes,” he assured in press conference after his victory, and detailed what he hopes to work on this year “I don’t have so many specific goals and the ones I have I try to keep with my team, I want to play more at the net, improve my serve and be a better player in general.”
Regarding Acapulco he added “I feel like the whole point of us being here is to bring something positive to Acapulco and we are all focusing on that.”
At the end of his match, it was the turn of defending champion Alex de Miñaur, who defeated Japan’s Taro Daniel 6-2, 6-1 in just one hour and 19 minutes. “I am very happy to get my first win in Mexico, last week was not the way I wanted so I needed this victory to regain my confidence and it is a good base to keep pushing. Nothing changed, I just got used to the conditions better, in Los Cabos everything was very fast. I’m not going to say that I’m at my best level, but I feel better on the track”.
Finally, it was the turn of Taylor Fritz, the fourth seeded American, who suffered a close match against another young revelation in recent months on the tour, the Italian Matteo Arnaldi.
The world No. 42 took the lead after the first set on the main court after being solid with his first serve, scoring five aces and 80% of converted points. For the second set, Fritz returned the five aces and broke him in two occasions and evened a duel that already in the early morning definition at the Arena GNP Seguros complex, ended up being the second great surprise of the day with the elimination of the world No. 10. Five Americans out of seven remain at the start of the competition.
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