Pacheco Mendez Experienced A Week To Remember In Acapulco

Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez
Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez (photo: Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC)

ACAPULCO/WASHINGTON, March 3, 2025 (by Michael Dickens)

Mexico has been hungry for a tennis star for quite some time. If last week is any indicator, it may have finally found one in former junior World No. 1 Rodrigo Pacheco Mendez.

The 19-year-old lefty, nicknamed “Rodri,” was cheered by legions of Mexican tennis fans that flocked to last week’s ATP 500 Abierto Mexicano Telcel presentado por HSBC in Acapulco. He’s a homegrown talent from Yucatán’s capital city Merida. Ranked 355th in the world a week ago, Pacheco Mendez was given a wild card into the main draw – and made the most of his opportunity by reaching the quarterfinal round.

When Pacheco Mendez scored a 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (4) upset of Australia’s 66th-ranked Aleksandar Vukic last Tuesday night in the opening round on Estadio – with Mexicans bursting into song as they wildly applauded their young hero after his three-hour epic triumph – he became the youngest Mexican player to win an ATP Tour match since Alejandro Hernandez accomplished the feat at Santiago, Chile in 1996. The victory advanced Pacheco Mendez to meet last year’s finalist and current World No. 5 Casper Ruud of Norway in the second round.

Lying on the court happy after defeating Vukic – and looking relieved, too – Pacheco Mendez described the feeling afterward. “I have no words to describe what happened; I feel butterflies in my stomach. It was all very fast, it was an incredible emotion and more than anything, the Mexican public how they supported me from point one to the last,” he said, quoted by the tournament website.

In an interview with the ATP Tour website, Pacheco Mendez recalled how he was driven by his father Benito’s passion for tennis. Together with his twin sister, Fernanda, Rodri began playing tennis at an early age against kids older than him. By age 12, he already had become one of Mexico’s top talents and he went to Europe to see how well he could fare against international competition.

“I remember I didn’t speak English and we didn’t have too much money,” Pacheco Mendez told the ATP Tour website in an interview last year. “My family made a big effort to send me to Europe, to raise the money was very difficult. I remember we ate pizza every day because it was the cheapest thing.”

In time, Pacheco Mendez honed his game by playing in tournaments in Slovenia, Italy, Austria and Croatia and dreams of a pro career began to form. The Mexican lefty, who patterns himself after another famous Spanish-speaking lefty, Rafael Nadal, proved his mettle. Through his travel, as well as by watching movies, Pacheco Mendez became fluent in English. Besides tennis, he loves going to amusement parks, especially Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla.

By the time Pacheco Mendez was playing in his second year of junior 14s, he kept going back to Europe – and kept winning, too – and it was then he realized: “I think I have a chance to be professional.”

As he told the ATP Tour website, “I got into the Top 10 players of Europe being Mexican. My highest ranking was seven, but I wasn’t a Europe guy. That was crazy because I didn’t play too many tournaments.”

The 6-foot-3-inch, 172-pound Pacheco Mendez, who turned pro three years ago, earned his first ATP ranking point in March 2022 at age 16. Then, he broke into the Top 500 in May 2024 and achieved a career-high ranking last month.

Earlier this season, Pacheco Mendez competed in a trio of ITF clay events in Antalya, Turkey, reaching the quarterfinals once and the semifinals once. He went 6-3. Last year, he lost a pair of ATP Tour first-round matches at Los Cabos and Acapulco, then played the rest of the season on the ITF World Tour and ATP Challenger Tour circuits. In all competitions, Pacheco Mendez went 36-26 and finished 2024 ranked 369th.

Fast forward to last week, after his surprise win over Vukic on the Grandstand court, Pacheco Mendez was given a prime Estadio billing Wednesday evening against Ruud. However, the No. 2 seed from Norway withdrew from the tournament a few hours before their match due to a stomach ailment. The walkover advanced Pacheco Mendez into Thursday’s quarterfinal round against World No. 48 Alejandro Davidovich Fokina and another late-evening court assignment on Estadio.

“I know I’m going to have a chance and I’m going to try to take advantage of it to make it a good match and have a surprise,” Pacheco Mendez said of Ruud during one of his news conferences. “But the truth is, that he is a much better player than me, one of the best in the world, and that will serve me well throughout my career.”

By receiving the walk-over win against Ruud, Pacheco Mendez became the first Mexican man to earn a Top-5 win since 1986, when Leonardo Lavalle defeated then-World No. 5 Stefan Edberg of Sweden in Philadelphia. It elevated Pacheco Mendez to become the first Mexican tour-level quarterfinalist since 1998, when Alejandro Hernandez reached the last eight in Mexico City on clay. Suddenly, Pacheco Mendez became much in demand on the tournament grounds – by the media and by fans. He was mobbed by well-wishing fans as he walked about the grounds at the Arena GNP Seguros. Everyone wanted an autograph or a selfie from the New Mexican star attraction.

Against Davidovich Fokina in the last eight on Thursday, the young Mexican simply ran out of gas and lost 6-2, 6-2. The quarterfinal tussle lasted just 68 minutes. His serve was broken five times in eight service games. Despite the setback, though, Pacheco Mendez walked off Estadio one last time to tremendous applause and with his head held high.

“For me it was a very good week. It has been the best week of my whole life,” Pacheco Mendez said in his post-match news conference. “There were many emotions. Yes, I enjoyed it. I feel like I’m dreaming, but I think I would like to believe it a little bit more. This helps me to keep growing.”

Thanks to Pacheco Mendez’s dream week in Acapulco, his ATP Ranking will soar 124 spots to a new career-high 231 on Monday. He’s also currently in sixth place with 111 points in the PIF ATP Life Race To Jeddah, which determines which eight players aged 20 and under will qualify for the Next Gen ATP Finals presented by PIF.

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