Rafael Nadal won 21st grand slam of his career surpassing the record of Roger Federer (20) and Novak Djokovic (20) in Australian Open, when he beat Daniil Medvedev in the summit clash.
One of the trio, Rafael Nadal was the only person in the fray who was rallying against Roger Federer’s stride of winning grand slams, but With entry of Novak Djokovic, the rivalry on field became three times.
Backed by a loud Melbourne crowd, sixth seed Nadal rallied to win 2-6 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 6-4 7-5 on Rod Laver Arena.
US Open champion Medvedev was going for his second successive major title.
Medvedev, 25, was in command before Nadal showed all of his renowned grit and fight to earn an extraordinary win.
The Knock and win for Rafael Nadal comes at the time when he was thinking about leaving the court because of his foot injury but amid hard times the unbreakable bull nailed the trophy in the clash.
In the absence of the deported Novak Djokovic and the injured Roger Federer in Melbourne, Nadal has moved one ahead of his great rivals in the race to finish with most major men’s singles titles.
It is the left-hander’s second Australian Open title and comes 13 years after his only previous success.
“Without a doubt it is one of the most emotional wins of my career,” Nadal, who had also previously lost four Australian Open finals, said after the trophy presentation.
Previously in his career, Nadal had only won three matches from two sets down and the most recent of those came at Wimbledon in 2007 against Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny.
Victory came at the end of the second longest Grand Slam final in history, just 30 minutes short of the 2012 final at Melbourne Park when Nadal lost to Djokovic.
So much had he given to his record-breaking achievement that during the trophy presentation, Nadal was brought a chair so he could sit down rather than stand.
“I’m physically destroyed,” Nadal said in his post-match news conference.
Medvedev, who lost last year’s final to Djokovic, was aiming to become the first man in the Open era to win his second Grand Slam title at the next major event after his maiden triumph.
He was the highest seed men’s player in Djokovic’s absence.
“If we talk about tennis, I’m not that disappointed,” Medvedev said.
“It was a huge match, for sure, and there were some small points, small details, that I could have done better if I wanted to win. But that’s tennis. That’s life.
“Rafa played unreal and raised his level. I mean, two sets to love up, I wanted just to go for him, go for more.
“He was really strong, the way he played for four hours, I was even surprised.”
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