Rafael Nadal went where no male tennis player has gone before as he won a record-breaking 21st Major title by defeating Russian second seed Daniil Medvedev in an epic Australian Open men’s singles final on Sunday.
The 35-year-old surpassed Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic with his 2-6, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 victory over a 5 hour 24 minute marathon to top the list of men’s major winners.
It was his second Australian Open title clinched after a sensational, heart-stopping match.
From two sets down and facing three break points on his serve in the third set, Nadal mounted a stunning fightback. He won the fourth set 6-4 to take the championship match into a decider just one minute short of midnight in Melbourne.
Australian Open men’s singles final as it happened
In the fifth, Nadal broke early. And when he went to serve for the match, he had a 30-0 lead which evaporated in no time in a game that he double faulted. Medvedev, of course, fought back to make it 5-5. In what was another epic game, Nadal broke Medvedev once again in the 11th game of the set to go up 6-5 and serve for the match a second time. With his third ace of the night, he went on to have three championship points and converted the first.
This was Nadal’s second Australian Open title, the first came all the way back in 2009. At a tournament where he has endured quite a few heartbreaks since, he registered perhaps his most stunning win yet as not long back he had contemplated bidding goodbye to the sport due to a persistent problem with his foot.
The Spanish sixth seed kept his hopes alive by grinding down an increasingly agitated Medvedev, breaking two times to the Russian’s one.
Medvedev, who was bidding for a second major after his US Open title last year, won the opening two sets 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) before Nadal clinched the third 6-4. In the 4th set, seven break points and a 10-minute game later, Nadal broke Medvedev to lead 3-2 before eventually taking it all the way.
The second set was marred when a protester holding a banner highlighting refugee detention jumped on to the court mid-game when Nadal was serving for the set at 5-3 before being quickly dragged away by security officials.
More to follow
With AFP inputs
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