A Champion’s Heart Guides Rafael Nadal to His Most Important Victory

Early Monday morning, Rafael Nadal scored the most important comeback victory of his storied career when he won the 2022 Australian Open men’s singles title on Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne. It happened before a partisan crowd that cheered madly for his every winner hit through the duration of his five-hour and 24-minute title match against Daniil Medvedev, which Nadal won 2-6, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4, 7-5.

When it was finally over, Nadal didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, so he did a little of both.

For Nadal, 35, a man on a mission during the Australian fortnight, he became the first to secure a men’s record 21st major singles title, breaking the tie he shared with his biggest rivals, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic, who are now tied for second with 20. While Federer remained home in Switzerland rehabbing from knee surgery, Djokovic was sent home by the country’s immigration minister, who declared the unvaccinated Serbian to be a threat to public health and order. 

A day after Ashleigh Barty won the women’s singles title and became the first homegrown player to win an Australian Open singles title in 44 years, Nadal showed the Melbourne fans and a worldwide television audience who tuned in at all hours around the globe why he’s the fiercest competitor in the sport of tennis.

Against Medvedev, who denied Djokovic of a calendar-year Grand Slam by winning the US Open in straight sets last September, Nadal produced some of his best tennis – especially after spotting the 25-year-old Russian a two-sets-to-love advantage while committing some very un-Nadal-like unforced errors. 

By the time that Nadal garnered victory at 1:12 a.m, which made him the sport’s most decorated Grand Slam men’s singles champion, the match had gone through a variety of momentum swings and there were plenty of memorable rallies – some as long as 40 shots – and dazzling winners hit by both competitors that will be remembered for a long time. The two worthy finalists, Nadal and Medvedev, played a total of 371 points, with the Russian winning 189 and Nadal 182.

“I was repeating to myself during the whole match that I lost a lot of times here having chances,” Nadal recalled during his post-match press conference, which took place in the wee hours of Monday morning as it neared 3 a.m. After his 2009 Australian Open title victory over Federer, which lasted five sets and took four hours and 23 minutes to complete, there were a series of four straight difficult losses in Melbourne finals before Nadal ended the skid against Medvedev. “Sometimes I was a little bit unlucky. I just wanted to keep believing until the end, no? I just wanted to give myself a chance.”

After securing championship point, Nadal stood motionless for a moment – captured perfectly by the TV cameras – and beamed a big smile while soaking in the plaudits of the fans who stood and cheered for him. Judging from the expression on his face, there was a mixture of laugher and tears of joy permeating Nadal. After all, Nadal hadn’t experienced the feeling of winning a major since capturing the 2020 French Open.

After Nadal shook hands with Medvedev, he returned to the center of the court and, as is his custom after winning an important match, punched the air, flexed his arms and pumped his fists toward the heavens. It was as if to signify that all was well and Nadal’s mission was successfully completed. In addition to winning his 21st major title, he also became just the fourth man in the Open Era to capture every major twice.

“This has been one of the most emotional nights of my tennis career,” Nadal said during the trophy ceremony, in which he lifted the Norman Brookes Challenger Cup for the second time in his storied career. Considering all the adversity the Spaniard had been through in recent months in being sidelined with a chronic foot injury that wasn’t always responding to therapy, then contracting Covid-19 after returning home from a December exhibition Abu Dhabi, it prompted him to say later on during his post-match press conference: “If we put everything together, the scenario, the momentum, what it means, yeah, without a doubt probably have been the biggest come back of my tennis career.”

The Spaniard told the crowd: “One month and a half [ago], I would say that maybe there is a chance that this was going to be my last Australian Open, but now I have plenty of energy to keep going. I really can’t explain the feelings that I have right now, but I am going to keep trying my best to keep coming next year.”

Nadal admitted how taxing it had been stringing together seven straight wins over the past two weeks at Melbourne Park, which included a five-set quarterfinal victory against Canada’s Denis Shapovalov last Tuesday. Yet, after breaking the all-time record for Grand Slam men’s singles titles and becoming the third-oldest Australian Open men’s winner, Nadal seemed energized – even blessed – by his success.

“I was not ready physically for these kinds of battles, honestly,” Nadal said. “I am super, super tired in all ways. I even can’t celebrate. But it was the day to give everything, no? I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the fight. I enjoyed the emotions. At the end to have this trophy with me means everything.”

A version of this blog first appeared in Tennis-TourTalk.com.

Photo: Courtesy of Tennis Australia.