Australian Open: Rafael Nadal after a 2-0 set deficit against Medvedev for the 21st Grand Slam victory!
Rafael Nadal has won his 21st Grand Slam title with an incredible comeback in the final of the 2022 Australian Open. The Spaniard defeated Daniil Medvedev 2-6, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4 and 7-5.
by Jens Huiber
last edit:
Jan 30, 2022, 03:13 pm
Here's the finale to read in the live ticker!
What a performance by Rafael Nadal! The Spanish grandmaster caught up a 2-0 set deficit against Daniil Medvedev and won his 21st title in a Grand Slam tournament with 2: 6, 6: 7 (5), 6: 4, 6: 4 and 7: 5 . In Australia it was first the second. Nadal won the final against Roger Federer there in 2009. After his triumph at the US Open in autumn 2021, Medvedev was able to immediately follow up with his second major win. Nadal is one win ahead of his great rivals Federer and Novak Djokovc, who each have 20 Grand Slam triumphs.
Medvedev started his fourth final in one of the four biggest tournaments in the tennis circuit much better than Nadal in his 29th attempt. After the Spaniard had problems in his first two service games, Medvedev got the break to make it 3: 2 and added another one in the seventh game. In the second act, the momentum seemed to turn: Rafael Nadal took the lead twice with a break, to 3: 1 and 5: 3. Medvedev came back both times and was also able to make up deficits in the tie-break. And made it 2-0 after more than two hours of play.
In the third round, Medvedev made it 0:40 in the sixth game, Nadal fended off all three breakballs and equalized to make it 3:3. Now Medvedev showed nerves, helped Nadal break to 5: 4 with a few strange wrong decisions. After 3:10 hours of play, Nadal had caught up a set.
Nadal fends off break chances, Medvedev makes bad decisions
In the fourth set, too, Medvedev seemed to be on the road to victory early on. But Rafael Nadal not only managed to catch up at 15:40, he also immediately followed up with a break to make it 2-1. Medvedev immediately equalized - not to the delight of the majority of the audience, who, as expected, had gathered in Nadal's corner. He took the lead again with a break to make it 3-2, and needed a total of seven chances to do so. With the score at 3:5, Medvedev had two more opportunities to get back into the set. And missed one of them with a totally unsuccessful stop attempt. Nadal thanked him kindly. And after 4:12 hours of match time, the set was tied.
In the decision, Nadal could have followed suit, but Medvedev countered his opponent's break chance in the first game. In the fifth game, however, the time had come: Nadal put a forehand longline ball on the line and took a 3-2 lead. Medvedev missed three chances to equalize in the following game, all with return failures. Nadal looked like the sure winner at 5: 4 and 30: 0 - then he allowed himself a short phase of weakness. Medvedev equalized. Only to allow three breakballs again in the eleventh game. The third used Nadal. 5:23 hours after the start of the game, Nadal was allowed to celebrate.
It was Medvedev and Nadal's fifth meeting, their second in a Grand Slam final. In 2019, Nadal was able to assert himself in five sets at the US Open. Back then, however, it was the Spaniard who had won the first two sets.
Here is the individual tableau at the Australian Open
laver arena