To write history, Rafael Nadal made it big. Huge even. Trailing two sets to zero and on the verge of breaking, the Spaniard overthrew Daniil Medvedev to win the Australian Open this Sunday, January 30. The two men fought for 5:24 before seeing the Spanish veteran, injured in the last six months, win (2-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5). And win his 21st Grand Slam title, a historic record.
With his second lift in Melbourne, thirteen years and four finals lost after the first, Rafael Nadal now overtakes Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer by a short head with an additional trophy in Major. Won after a hard fight after a disjointed final with breathtaking intensity, this coronation will certainly remain as one of the great moments of the sporting year. And the history of tennis.
Another chapter is written @Rafael Nadal defeats Daniil Medvedev 2-6 6-7(5) 6-4 6-4 7-5 to win his second #AusOpen title in an epic lasting five hours and 24 minutes.
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: @wwos • @espn • @Eurosport • @wowowtennis #AO2022 pic.twitter.com/OlMvhlGe6r— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 30, 2022
Daniil Medvedev will find it very difficult to console himself with a place of world number one which is reaching out to him in a few weeks, as this final has escaped him after having seemed promised to him.
The Russian will be able to regret this sixth game of the third set for a long time, when everything then seemed in control. Gilles Cervara’s protege had obviously learned the lesson of the 2021 final where, overtaken by events, he had suffered repeated attacks from Novak Djokovic. For nearly two hours, the Russian seemed unsinkable, boss of the first round thanks to two white breaks (6-2), then reed in the second, the real start of this final. On a click exchange of 40 shots concluded on a short slice of velvet, Nadal obtained his first two break points at 2-1. From an almost one-sided confrontation, the fight has really begun. A register that Daniil Medvedev is particularly fond of. More physically marked, he was forced to adapt to the game and Nadal improvised volleyball server, rather than dictating. He was none the less unperturbed. Led 4-1, 5-3, then 5-3 in the tie-break, the Muscovite never gave up to conclude a second round of 1h24.
At 6-2, 7-6, 3-2, Medvedev had three opportunities to break and touch the Southern Grail with one hand. Won then by nervousness, annoyed for the first time by his own mistakes and by a public in favor of his vis-à-vis, he also broke his teeth on an opponent who only feels the wind of defeat once it is approved. Rafael Nadal may have sweated profusely from the first exchanges, his physique held up. And as always with “Rafa”, the head never gave up.
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