By winning the Australian Open final on Sunday against Daniil Medvedev after being down two sets to none (2-6, 6-7 [5], 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 in 5 hours and 24 minutes), Rafael Nadal added a 21st Grand Slam title to his record, one more than Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
We expected a great final between Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev, but what we got was a titanic physical, technical and mental tug-of-war that lasted five hours and twenty-four minutes. The duel, of a high intensity, gave birth to a new performance of the Spaniard who, at 35 years of age, won the 21st Grand Slam of his career, and moreover, came back from a two-set deficit (2-6, 6-7 [5], 6-4, 6-4, 7-5).
This is the fourth time in his career that he has achieved this performance, but it is undoubtedly the most important. It not only gives him his second Australian Open, thirteen years after his first, but also puts him ahead of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the Grand Slam pantheon (21 titles versus 20). For a player who had not played for five months due to a serious injury to his left foot, this is quite an achievement.
Both men played an exceptional final, but Nadal was particularly heroic in coming back from losing the first two sets. The Spaniard seemed to be getting better and better as the match went on and Medvedev finally broke down both mentally and technically. Rafael Nadal ended the fifth set with an ace and a very good first serve, two elements that the Spaniard had sorely missed at the beginning of the final.
Nadal on leaving the court:
“I can’t believe it, it’s incredible. I feel physically destroyed, I can’t believe how I withstood such a match after everything I’ve been through in the last few months. It was one of the most emotional matches of my career. Daniil fought the whole time, he was incredible. Today was for me, I fought tremendously to get this (he takes the trophy).”
