Mexican Open in Acapulco rocked by illness and upsets as seeds fall

A bizarre Wednesday at the Mexican Open in Acapulco ended with the top five seeds out of the tournament, with at least three of them succumbing to illness.

Norway’s Casper Ruud pulled out ahead of his match against home qualifier Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez because of a “stomach illness,” while Holger Rune of Denmark lasted just three games against America’s Brandon Nakashima before retiring. Like Ruud, Rune confirmed on social media that he had a stomach issue, writing on X: “Furious and so sad at the same time. Had a food poisoning and was unable to play today.” Tommy Paul, the American world No. 10, also succumbed to stomach issues and withdrew ahead of his match against compatriot Marcos Giron.

Of the remaining top seeds, there were shock losses for Alexander Zverev, the world No. 2, and the American pair Ben Shelton and Frances Tiafoe. It has not yet been confirmed if any of them were suffering from the illness that affected Ruud, Rune and Paul.

Zverev’s defeat by the young American Learner Tien is another significant upset for the 19-year-old, after his win against Daniil Medvedev at the Australian Open in January en route to the fourth round.

Zverev, who has a chance to take the world No. 1 spot over the next three months with Jannik Sinner suspended, again came up short after disappointing tournaments in Argentina and Brazil the past two weeks. Despite being seven inches taller than his opponent and dominating in the serve power department, Zverev was often far too passive and found himself unable to dictate from the baseline. Three points in which Tien net cords looped into Zverev’s strike zone, only to be met with half-hearted approach shots, typified his performance — Zverev lost all three of those points.

Tien, who had to qualify for the event, also allowed the German’s forehand to beat itself; he won 6-3, 6-4 with Zverev making 18 unforced errors on that wing.

Belgian veteran David Goffin beat Shelton 7-6(3), 6-3. After their match, Goffin told reporters that even with the illness going around, the upset victories should not be underestimated: “Even if (some players) were, I think, sick a little bit every opponent it’s hard to beat.” Tiafoe, the No. 7 seed but the sixth-highest after the withdrawal of would-be No. 6 seed Lorenzo Musetti on the eve of the tournament, lost 6-3, 6-7(3), 6-3 to the Spaniard Alejandro Davidovich Fokina.

The day and night of upsets leaves the tournament wide open, with only two seeds remaining: No. 8 Tomas Machac, the world No. 25, and No. 9 Denis Shapovalov, ranked No. 32. Shapovalov avoided the upset curse by defeating American 20-year-old Alex Michelsen, who received medication on court in the second set of a 6-4, 6-3 loss; Machac beat German qualifier Daniel Altmaier.

All of the affected players will hope to have recovered in time for the ATP 1,000 at Indian Wells, Calif., whose main draw starts next week. Ruud will be particularly cautious having struggled for much of last year after being infected with a parasite at the French Open. It left him badly underpowered for his semifinal there against Zverev and then saw him bed-bound for more than a week.

The Mexican Open quarterfinals take place Thursday.

(Top photo of Holger Rune / AFP via Getty Images)