(Reuters) – Not solely did Rafa Nadal’s staggering comeback victory over Daniil Medvedev within the Australian Open ultimate earn him a males’s report twenty first Grand Slam title it additionally confirmed as soon as again the folly of assuming a brand new order is seizing energy in males’s tennis.
When Medvedev ambushed Novak Djokovic’s hopes of reaching 21 and a primary males’s calendar-year Slam since 1969 in final yr’s U.S. Open ultimate, it felt like a seismic shift with the Russian main a takeover on the high.
That appeared much more doubtless when the 35-year-old Nadal arrived in Melbourne after virtually six months out with a foot harm because the lone rider of the fabled “huge three”.
Roger Federer was again in Switzerland rehabilitating his injured knee whereas nine-times Australian Open champion Djokovic was embroiled in a visa row sparked by his determination to not have a COVID-19 vaccine and was finally be deported.
It left Spaniard Nadal, battle-scarred and having just lately examined constructive for COVID, to combat off the young vanguard single-handed — absolutely a job an excessive amount of for even the best warrior tennis has ever seen.
Djokovic’s self-inflicted exile left Medvedev because the red-hot favorite, and if it wasn’t him to carry his second Grand Slam title, absolutely one in every of Olympic champion Alexander Zverev or Stefanos Tsitsipas would step as much as make his huge breakthrough.
Nadal, seeded six, had by no means flown so low below the radar main right into a Grand Slam match, even when he had received a warm-up occasion in Melbourne the week earlier than.
Yet the warrior-like instincts kicked in and we have been all reminded that Nadal, so long as he’s standing, stays a bodily and psychological power of nature on a tennis court docket.
Russian powerhouse Karen Khachanov (25), Canadian Denis Shapovalov (22) and Italian Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini (25) all succumbed as Nadal surged by means of the draw, earlier than finishing the best comeback of his profession to outlast Medvedev in a five-hour 24 minute epic.
It means Nadal, a number of months after doubting whether or not he would return in any respect, is now main the race to finish with essentially the most Grand Slam titles, when the belief had been that Djokovic could be the one to achieve uncharted territory.
NEXT TARGET
The French Open might be Nadal’s subsequent goal and after his astonishing feats in Melbourne, few would dismiss his probabilities of including a 14th title on the Parisian clay — the floor that has under-pinned his profession.
Win that and he would transfer two away from Federer and Djokovic and whereas Grand Slam titles should not the one metric utilized in a G.O.A.T (best of all time) debate many suppose is frivolous, it could make him tough to catch.
“I’ve to say that I assumed he misplaced the race when he misplaced to Novak Djokovic within the semis of Roland Garros final yr,” seven-times Grand Slam champion Mats Wilander advised Eurosport.
“That was it, I assumed: Nadal is out of the race. He’s not going to have the ability. Maybe he wins one other French, however most likely not, and he isn’t going to win the opposite tournaments. And all of the sudden we’re right here. It’s unimaginable.”
Throughout their careers, Nadal, Federer and Djokovic have impressed one another to even better heights, nevertheless, and Nadal’s resurgence may have that impact again.
Djokovic has taken a beating previously month however watching Nadal declare the most important title he imagined he would rejoice in Melbourne will certainly drive him on.
And Federer could also be 40, however he stays able to offering the game with one final magical hurrah.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, enhancing by Ed Osmond)
