Spanish sport will experience its first super Sunday of the year, with presence in two grand finals that, each at their level, can open the door to historical records, to international dream brands, for their protagonists: Rafael Nadal at the Australian Open, Y Hispanics, in the European handball
The main door, with the eyes of the sports planet oriented towards Melbourne, opens at 9:30, Spanish time. It’s time to have breakfast with rackets, with the participation of Nadal in his 29th Grand Slam final, what will it be the sixth in Australia. This is the only big one that he has only lifted once. If he achieved the double, he would become the second tennis player with at least two wins in all of them, after Novak Djokovic, who crossed that border in the last Roland Garros. This is one of the Balearic hand records, but not the most relevant. The expectation revolves around the number 21, to that magic figure that would break the tiebreaker with his two Big Three colleagues, Djokovic and Roger Federer, at the altar of the Slams.
In front you will have Daniil Medvedev, the virtual number one, a bad boy capable of facing the stands of New York, Madrid, Paris and Melbourne, and to call “stupid” to a chair umpire, and to come out grown from all those lawsuits. Behind these outbreaks that cloud the path of the Russian there is a brilliant tennis player, with the resources to launch an attack or to defend himself on the ropes. The Spaniard knows him well, because he suffered a lot to break him in the US Open final in 2019. Medvedev already frustrated Djokovic’s assault on 21 last year in the United States. And he is ready to also crash the party to a Nadal who a few months ago was thinking about retiring from tennis… That Nadal who always comes back.
The second door will catch us with the snack, at 18:00, with Spain in its fourth consecutive final in a European, which is already a record record in itself. No continental handball team has achieved it before, nor has any Spanish Olympic sports team. If he won the third gold in a row, he would equal a Swedish mark, which is precisely his rival in the fight for the title. The Hispanics have already beaten the Nordics in the first phase, but do not trust it. On the contrary, Spain has the bitter experience of 2016, when he succumbed to a Germany he had just beaten. The Selection, yes, arrives propelled by their victory against powerful Denmark, that team that allowed themselves to win to meet Jordi Ribera’s team in the semifinals, and came out scalded. Bad selection. Hispanics can never be considered finished… Neither can Nadal.
#endings #story