The ATP 500 in Acapulco will be the best in its history. Among other things, by the locations in the ATP Ranking of its main competitors. The numbers confirm this. The Abierto Mexicano Telcel presented by HSBC will organize for the first time an edition with at least four players from the Top-5 of the world ranking.
More members of the Top-5 per year in Acapulco
| Edition | Members of the Top-5 |
| 2022 | 4 |
| 2019 | 2 |
| 2013 | 2 |
No. 2 Daniil Medvedev, No. 3 Alexander Zverev, No. 4 Stefanos Tsitsipas and No. 5 Rafael Nadal will compete from Monday, the day the main draw of the Mexican tournament begins. Having so many Top-5 stars in a single tournament — other than a Grand Slam, Masters 1000 or Nitto ATP Finals — is a rare circumstance on the ATP Tour. In fact, this has only happened twice in the history of the ATP 500, a category created in 2009.
“It is a group of extraordinary players”, assured the tournament director, Raúl Zurutuza. “It is the tournament with the best closing in our history. Couldn’t be happier with this great poster. It is the fruit of a very hard work of the whole organization”.
The first time an ATP 500 had at least four members of the Top-5 was in Dubai 2012, when Novak Djokovic (1), Roger Federer (3), Andy Murray (4) and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (5) competed. The second was in Beijing 2013, whose main draw was led by Djokovic (1), Nadal (2), David Ferrer (4) and Tomas Berdych (5).
Meanwhile in 🇲🇽😍@RafaelNadal | @AbiertoTelcel pic.twitter.com/fRoRJIk2l3
— ATP Tour en Español (@ATPTour_ES) February 18, 2022
“I am super happy to be in Acapulco, I think we have an incredible field of players this year, with four Top-5 players. So I think it will be a very exciting edition”, assured Zverev, defending champion of the contest and who has been in the tournament since last Tuesday.
Project underway 🚂 🥳
Defend the title in 🇲🇽@AlexZverev | @AbiertoTelcel pic.twitter.com/8EATrEku3R
— ATP Tour en Español (@ATPTour_ES) February 16, 2022
Other unmissable aspects in the AMT2022
However, the Top-5 will not be the only thing that will make this event special. World No. 6 Matteo Berrettini will also be present to bring the Top-10 members to five and match the highest number in the tournament’s history (there were also five in 2017 and 2018). But it has not been easy for the organization to position itself as one of the most attractive tournaments on the ATP Tour today.
One of the many keys has been the change from clay to hard courts in 2014, which made it (due to geography, conditions and ease) the ideal preparation tournament for the first ATP Masters 1000 of the season (the BNP Paribas Open).
Acapulco on clay never had more than two members of the Top-10 per edition (in seven editions there weren’t even). And it is true that some years with this surface there were stellar figures such as the then No. 1 Gustavo Kuerten in 2001, or the then No. 2 Tomas Muster in 1996 (when the venue was located in Mexico City). But the Top-10 was never massively represented like it is now.
And it is that in the eight editions of the contest that have been played on hard courts, between 2014 and 2021, there have been 24 presences of members of the Top-10 in Acapulco through 15 different players, including Djokovic, Nadal and Andy Murray, former number one in the world.
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Although not only because of what has already been mentioned, we are talking about the ATP 500 in Acapulco organizing this time the best edition in its history. The fact that it will open a new venue (Arena GNP Seguros) and with the last four semifinalists of the Australian Open participating, adds value to the event even more. In addition, the event will be the epicenter of the fight for No. 1 in the ATP Ranking between Medvedev and Djokovic.
If the Russian becomes champion in Acapulco, he will displace the Serbian regardless of what he does in Dubai, another ATP 500 that takes place in the same week. Even if the current World No. 2 loses in his debut in Mexico and Djokovic fails to reach the quarter-finals in Dubai, Medvedev will claim the throne of the world rankings. The Abierto Mexicano Telcel presented by HSBC has a good chance of attesting to that.
It will be an unmissable tournament, in any case. And if that’s how this edition will be, the one in 2023 —when the event is 30 years old— may be much better…
See full table of AMT 2022
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