Rafael Nadal's win at the Australian Open showed that the story of this era in tennis is still far from over, jon_wertheim writes
Tentatively, Nadal entered Australia and quickly worked his way into form. He won a tune-up event in Melbourne in the first week of the season; given, he didn’t have to be the player in the top 50. The experience went a long way, not just swelling his confidence, but allowing him to acclimatize to the Melbourne courts and competitive tennis.
In the first six matches at the Open, it was vintage Nadal with a touch of aging. He won the first two sets of every match, but three times he dropped the third. He was pushed, but every time he showed that he had the goods. However, in the final, with Medvedev on the other side of the net, it seemed as if the entire competitive situation was different.
For the first two sets, Medvedev looked not only like a player 10 years younger than Nadal but like the guy who had won the previous major. The Russian had trained for this role, of playing spoiler, at the 2021 U.S. Open, where he thwarted Djokovic’s bid for 21 majors; he was also in the final in Melbourne in ‘21. For all his gangly movement and flappy ball-striking, he is a devastatingly effective player. He’s the clear torchbearer once the Big Three finally exit.
But then Nadal remembered he was Nadal. He clawed back in the third and fourth sets. He went up a break in the fifth to the delight of the crowd. Nadal stepped to the line where those ghosts of Rod Laver Arena were circulating on the dial. He had, unbelievably, only won the Australian Open once previously. This was his fifth final. In 2012, he lost in the longest final in major history, downed by Djokovic in a match that could have easily gone the other way.
Back in 2022, after winning the first two points at 5–4, Nadal lost the next four points, one with a shaky and uncharacteristic double fault. But he was able to break Medvedev back and grab a second chance at history. He took advantage, serving out the match and winning with the most unlikely scoreline of his career: 2–6, 6–7, 6–4, 6–4, 7–5. Apart from the history, this will stand as one of Nadal's great triumphs.
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