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The Spaniard became a legend in Melbourne by being crowned the male tennis player with the most Grand Slams in history after beating Russian Daniil Medvedev in an agonizing final of almost five and a half hours. The Australian Open final was initially dominated by the tennis player from Moscow, but Nadal knew how to turn it around and win the trophy.
Rafael Nadal is already history. The Spanish tennis player achieved his twenty-first Grand Slam at dawn in the Australian city of Melbourne in an epic match that will go down in the best memories of tennis fans. Five sets in 5 hours and twenty-four minutes that declined the balance in favor of the Spaniard with a 2-6, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4 and 7-5. Nadal managed to lift his second Australian Open in an agonizing match that makes him the most successful male tennis player in history.
Nadal had come to this event with the pressure of knowing that if he won the trophy, he would surpass Noval Djokovic and Roger Federer in the number of Grand Slams -since, until today, the three had a triple tie at 20-, and with the illusion of being able to win an Australian Open again, a tournament that he had only won once in 2009.
For the Spanish tennis player, being able to play the Australian Open was little short of a triumph, since until four months ago he could barely walk due to an injury to his left foot that made him hesitate about retiring. But the opportunities came with each tie and the expectations grew as the final approached. A final in which he had to face the Russian Daniil Medvédev.
Medvedev was perhaps the strongest rival the Majorcan could have after Novak Djokovic’s inability to play the tournament. The Muscovite tennis player had just snatched the 21st Grand Slam from the Serbian star at the US Open and it was possible that history would repeat itself in Melbourne with Nadal as a victim.
The match did not start in the best way for the tennis player from Mallorca, as he was overtaken by a fast and forceful Medvedev who managed to get ahead in the first two sets of the match. A practically insurmountable advantage that made the followers of the Spanish athlete fear the worst.
The fast court that is played in Australia is not Rafael Nadal’s favorite terrain, known worldwide for the “king” of clay courts that dominate courts like Roland Garros, but the Mallorcan was willing to give everything to avoid what seemed inevitable and give, once again, a lesson of honor and epic that conquered the Australian public present.
After receiving two painful blows in the first two sets -2-6, 6-7(5)- the Spaniard managed to overcome and take the third by an agonizing 6-4 that forced a fourth set and revived a Nadal who until then seemed to drift. But perhaps one of the characteristics that has most marked Nadal’s game during these years is the physical and especially psychological capacity he has to overcome adverse results.
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