Australian Open 2022: Rafael Nadal Creates History, Beats Daniil Medvedev To Claim 21st Grand Slam Title

With his dramatic victory, Nadal has claimed sole ownership of the record for the most Grand Slam men's titles, moving past Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic who are both on 20 major crowns.

Melbourne: Rafael Nadal roared back from two-sets-to-love down to beat Daniil Medvedev in the classic final and win Australian Open 2022 men singles trophy, claiming his record-breaking 21st Grand Slam title, here on Sunday. Under the lights at Rod Laver Arena, the legendary Spaniard demonstrated his trademark big-match mentality, overcoming the Russian Medvedev 2-6, 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 in an epic five hours and 24 minutes final to win the trophy.

With his dramatic victory, Nadal has claimed sole ownership of the record for the most Grand Slam men’s titles, moving past Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic who are both on 20 major crowns. The 35-year-old, who clinched the trophy in Melbourne in 2009, has also become just the second player in the Open Era alongside Djokovic to win each of the four majors at least twice.

Nadal now leads Medvedev 4-1 in their ATP Head2Head series, with this their second meeting in a Grand Slam final. At the US Open in 2019, Medvedev rallied from two-sets-to-love down before Nadal prevailed in the decider in a Flushing Meadows epic.

Medvedev dominated the first two sets completely and gave the Spaniard no chance for a comeback. With his flawless backhands and serves, Nadal found it difficult to cope up with the speed of the number 2 seed. With trouble mounting in the third set, the ATP number 6 player started rallying aggressively against Medvedev.

After winning the third set by a whisker, there was a new Nadal on the tennis court who found his energy all of a sudden. Medvedev, who displayed his mental prowess throughout the tournament and suddenly started losing points. It is noteworthy that most of the people in the audience were cheering Nadal, which bothered Medvedev to a great extent. He looked affected by it as he tried to give it back against the crowd who cheered whenever he made a slight mistake.

Inputs from IANS