Dimitrov Off To Hot Start In Acapulco

Seventh seed Grigor Dimitrov wasted no time getting down to business on Tuesday at the Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC, powering past Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia-Herzegovina 6-3, 6-3 to reach the second round in Acapulco.

“Amazing crowd out here. It’s a very special tournament for me,” Dimitrov said in his on-court interview. “I was glad to get it going again as I haven’t played in a while and am happy to get that first win.”

The Bulgarian won 92 per cent of his first-serve points (24/26) and broke Dzumhur three times to advance in 74 minutes. Dimitrov now looks for his first quarter-final of the season when he meets Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in the next round.

Spanish qualifier Pedro Martinez continued his outstanding form with a convincing 6-3, 6-2 victory over Moldovan Radu Albot. The 22-year-old entered this season having never won a tour-level match, but has prevailed in all five of his opening-round matches this year. Next up for Martinez is a second-round clash with third-seeded Swiss Stan Wawrinka.

Soonwoon Kwon outlasted Japanese lucky loser Taro Daniel 6-2, 2-6, 6-3. The 22-year-old South Korean sits at a career-high FedEx ATP Ranking of No. 76 after reaching three quarter-finals this month in Pune, New York and Delray Beach. He awaits the winner of eighth-seeded Serbian Dusan Lajovic and American Steve Johnson.

Top seed Rafael Nadal begins his Acapulco campaign on Tuesday night. The two-time champion (2005, 2013) starts with an all-Spanish battle against Pablo Andujar.