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Top seed Rafael Nadal continued his serene progress through the 2020 Acapulco Open field, seeing off Grigor Dimitrov for the 13th time in 14 meetings to reach his fourth final at the tournament.
The 19-time Grand Slam winner is yet to drop a set in Acapulco as he looks for his first title of the season against American Taylor Fritz who recovered from a 2-6 2-4 0-40 deficit to down compatriot John Isner in the other semi-final.
It marks the 17th consecutive season Nadal has reached an ATP final since losing his first career final to Dominik Hrbaty at 2004 Auckland - a streak bettered only by Jimmy Connors (18 years; 1972 to 1989) and Roger Federer (20 years; 2000 to 2019).
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In Fritz, Nadal will face a new opponent for the third time in Acapulco this week, after beating Miomir Kecmanovic in the second round and Soonwoo Kwon in the quarter-finals. The American would be the 45th different player Nadal will come up against in a tournament final.
The gulf in pedigree between the two players is immediately apparent in the fact that while Nadal would be contesting his 122nd title match (84-37) at a tournament, Fritz would be appearing in only his 5th career final (1-3). Nadal is a two-time title winner in Acapulco, lifting titles at the tournament in 2005 and 2013 respectively.
However, since the tournament transitioned from clay to hardcourt in 2014, Nadal is yet to add to his title haul in Acapulco after losing to Fritz's compatriot Sam Querrey in the 2017 final. Fritz can also draw confidence from the fact that Nadal has lost more hardcourt finals than he has won on the surface (21-26), with the Spaniard's last such defeat coming against Novak Djokovic in the 2019 Australian Open.
Over to the final weekend of the 2020 Acapulco Open.
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