Fourth seed Holger Rune pointed to a bout of food poisoning as the reason for his retirement down 0-3 to Brandon Nakashima in their opening set.
“Furious and so sad at the same time. Had food poisoning and was unable to play today,” Rune posted on X (formerly Twitter). “One of my favorite places is Mexico and I love this tournament @AbiertoTelcel. Absolutely not the way I wanted it to end.”
Top seed Alexander Zverev and fifth seed Ben Shelton were eliminated inside Arena GNP Seguros. Zverev went down to 19-year-old qualifier Learner Tien, 6-3, 6-4, while Shelton was on the receiving end of a 7-6 (3), 6-3 loss to David Goffin.
Eighth seed Tomas Machac and ninth seed Denis Shapovalov meanwhile, avoided the trend. Machac will face Tien after easing past wild card Daniel Altmaier, 7-6 (3), 6-1. Dallas Open champion Shapovalov posted his seventh consecutive win by defeating Alex Michelsen, 6-4, 6-3, for a final-eight clash with Giron.
