With the square populated by more than 35 thousand spectators and adorned by a play of lights and fireworksNadal entered the track wrapped in a louder ovation than the one Ruud received.
In the first set, Nadal played with more power and precision in his serves and returns, he looked very solid.
For his part, Ruud had some flashes and although he struggled, he knew how to keep his serve to extend the set until the ‘tie break’, where the Spaniard won 7-6 (9/7).
The second set began with Nadal wrapped in the overwhelming support of the fans. Casper tried to take some points with balloons, but the Spaniard did his best to answer them.
With a 2-1 lead, the Norwegian had three chances to get the first break of the match, but the Spaniard managed to avoid the break against.
Ruud led 4-3, then walked off the court and handed the racket to a young woman in the crowd who made three attempts to return Nadal’s serve.
After the peculiar interruption, the match resumed and Nadal finally took advantage of a ‘break point’ in his favor to take a 5-4 lead with the first break of the match. Very smiling, the Spaniard served to take the game.
At the end of the game, both players went around the arena of the bullring together, and both wore traditional charro hats.
“Hello everyone, good evening and thanks for coming tonight.” Ruud said in Spanish and in English added that “I have had the best experience of my life on a tennis court. Impressive!” The Norwegian revealed that “see you at (the) Acapulco Open next year.”
For his part, wrapped in a chant “oe oe oe, Rafa, Rafa”, Nadal said he had spent “an unforgettable night, I can only say thank you for the unconditional support, this country has always treated me like one more Mexican”.
This country has always treated me like one more Mexican
In this way, of the five exhibition matches of the “La Revancha” series, Nadal won four: in Buenos Aires (7-6 (10/8) and 6-2), Belo Horizonte (7-6 (7/4 ) and 7-5), Bogotá (7-5 and 6-4) and Mexico City (7-6 (9/7) and 6-4). Ruud only achieved one victory: in Quito (6-4 and 6-4).
In the mixed doubles preliminary match, the Mexican couple made up of Renata Zarazúa and Santiago González defeated the pairing made up of Canadian Leylah Fernandez and American Jack Sock in two sets with partials of 6-3 and 6-4.