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Tag: Nadal

Nadal’s Miracle in Melbourne Gets Him a record 21st Grand Slam Title

Posted on by Chirag

Last night in Melbourne, spectators witnessed one of the greatest comebacks in sports history as Rafael Nadal beat Daniil Medvedev to win his 2nd ever Australian Open and a record 21st Grand Slam.

The match started with Daniil Medvedev in full control as he took the first 2 sets at 6-2, 7-6 comparatively easily. There just seemed no way out for Nadal as he tried various ways to win a point against the Russian.

The Spaniard tried going back behind the baseline, tried coming ahead and volleying and even tried to focus on Daniil’s Forehand but just couldn’t find a way to penetrate Medvedev’s defense. However by the third set, Nadal had tried enough and started combining all of these methods to tire out Medvedev.

By the end of the set, Nadal won his first set and went on to take the fourth set with incredibly difficult points to break Medvedev’s serve. Finally, as the Melbourne crowd showed zero signs of sleepiness, they backed the Spaniard as he served for the match in the last set.

There is no doubt that Medvedev has incredible potential and could have won last night, however Nadal’s resilience and perseverance was otherworldly. The match went on for a whole 5 hours and 24 minutes with the two players very tired by the end of it.

Nadal broke a number of records with this win as he climbed up to number 5 in the rankings, got to 90 career wins, became the fourth male player to win all four grand slams at least twice and also became the first ever player in history to win a record 21 grand slams with Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer at 20 grand slams each. Nadal truly is the GOAT right now. 

Rafael Nadal Reveals He Considered Leaving Tennis Behind

Posted on by Chirag

The former 20 time grand slam winner has had a long career with everything he’s done for tennis. He has also been part of the infamous ‘Big Three’ who have revolutionised tennis. With so many things achieved its just a matter of time before these three call it a day and retire. However for Nadal that day was seemingly in the books already.

Nadal revealed he felt like he might have to retire post last year’s incidents and his foot injury nagging him again and again, “I went through a lot of challenging moments, a lot of days of hard work without seeing a light there,” said the 35-year-old. “But still working and still receiving plenty of support from my team and from my family, too, without a doubt. A lot of conversations with the team, with the family about what can happen or what’s going to happen if the things continue like this, thinking that maybe is a chance to say goodbye.”

“For a long time I wasn’t able to practise,” said Nadal. “Sometimes I went on court and I was able to practise 20 minutes, sometimes 45, sometimes zero, sometimes two hours, but it has been very, very rough in terms of imagine myself playing at the best-of-five at this moment.”

“The doubts are going to be here probably for the rest of my career, without a doubt, because I have what I have and that’s something that we cannot fix. But for me it’s amazing, and I’m super happy to be able to compete for the last three weeks at the level that I am doing.”

“Not only about tennis, that’s for sure. It’s surprising for me to be able to play at the level that I am playing, but just compete and play tennis at the high level again, facing the most important players of the world, for me, it’s something unbelievable, no?”

“What Would Novak Do?” Asks Medvedev

Posted on by Chirag

Danni Medvedev won his quarter finals match against the young Canadian Aliassime yesterday in a thrilling five set match. Hope seemed to have been lost for Medvedev as he lost the first two sets to the Canadian. However in one of the best comebacks in Australian Open history, Medvedev went on to win the next 3 sets straight in a row to secure his spot against Tsitsipas on Friday.

Post the grueling match, Medvedev was in a good mood, and said ““I have no idea!” When asked about the intense heat and physicality.

“I mean, talking about the match point, I managed to serve well. If it had been a second serve, we never know what would happen. Talking about the whole match. It’s funny this bag, I usually come with a lot of (spare) clothes, just in case, you know six shirts, three pairs of shoes, whatever. Now it’s empty!”

“I didn’t really know what to do,” Medvedev explained. “Actually I don’t know if people are going to like it but I told myself ‘what would Novak (Djokovic) do?’”

At this point, the crowd serenaded him with boos with the mention of the World no. 1 

“Because he is one of the greatest champions, or Rafa (Nadal) or Roger (Federer) to be honest, they’ve won so many matches like this.”

At the mention of Nadal and Federer, the crowd cheered in response.

“And I just thought ‘ok, I’m going to make (Auger-Aliassime) work.’”. “If he wants to win it, he needs to fight until the last point, even if it’s 5-0, 40-0 for him, I’m going to try to make him tired for the next match, you know? Just fight until the last point, and it worked.”

Australian Open Quarter Finals Set Up as Zverev Upset by Shapovalov

Posted on by Chirag

The Australian Open is well into its second week with the prize money reaching $538,500 for players exiting the tournament in the quarter final stage.

4 out of 8 players have already made it to the quarter finals already and will be playing their matches tomorrow morning. As for the rest of the 4 spots, matches are currently underway at the Rod Laver and John Cain Arenas to set up 2 more quarter finals matches for Wednesday.

As expected, Monfils, Berettini and Nadal made it to the quarterfinals, however in a shocker, the German World no. 3 Alexander Zverev lost in straight sets to the young Canadian Dennis Shapovalov and missed out on facing Rafael Nadal.

With Medvedev and Tsitsipas expected to win their Round 4 matches today and eventually win their own respective quarterfinal matches on Wednesday, it looks like Medvedev and Tsitsipas will be taking on each other in the semi finals. 

Over on the women’s side, crowd favourites like Raducannu and Osaka lost out in Round 2 and 3 respectively. Yesterday in Round 4, more favourites like Victoria Azarenka and Simona Halep also exited the tournament. This leaves only one favourite and current world no. 1, the hometown girl, Ashleigh Barty. She will be playing the American Jessica Pegula tomorrow at the Rod Laver Arena prior to the Monfils vs Berrettini match.

Nadal Destroys Kachanov to Reach Round of 16

Posted on by Chirag

The 20 time grand slam winner looks ready to fight for another grand slam title and show the young and new era of ATP that the likes of Djokovic and himself aren’t done yet.

The Spaniard met Karen Kachanov in the round 3 encounter yesterday evening with a strong Head to Head record against the Russian. However since the past few matches between the two it has been difficult for Nadal to beat the youngster.

But this time, it wasn’t that hard for Nadal. Rafa took the first and second set at 6-3,6-2 and then surprisingly lost a set to the Russian as he tried new service return positions behind the baseline.

The Russian took the second set in quite convincing fashion at 3-6. But, just when it looked like Kachanov could pull a rabbit out of his hat and get this to an elusive 5th set tie breaker, Nadal stopped testing and went beast mode.

The Spaniard quickly pulled into the right gear and looked like the Rafa of old as he brought out his running down the line backhand and then his famous arm pump celebration.

With Nadal in the Round of 16, he will now face the frenchman Adrian Mannarino tomorrow at the Rod Laver Arena. Alexander Zverev also qualified for the Round of 16 by beating Albot 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

Breaking News: Nadal Dominates His Way Into Round 3

Posted on by Chirag

The King of Clay showed his dominance on the hard surface this morning with an incredible performance against Yannick Hanfmann. 

The Spaniard started out equal with the German as the two went 2-2 at a point in the first set. However post that was just Spanish power on display as Nadal took the first set at 6-2 with a sensational down the line backhand winner.

The second set followed with Nadal taking the win again, but Hanfmann getting a couple of crucial and amazing points. Post his 6-2, 6-3 lead he followed up by winning in straight sets as he took the last set at 6-4 after an interesting deuce.

The 20 time grand slam winner, Nadal, joked about how he hated the gym and loved the courts more after his quick match and now looks ahead towards the third round as the field thins down to 32 players.

With Zverev in action next, it begs the question that can it be a Zverev vs Nadal semi finals match in a  week’s time?

Over in the female side, Emma Raducanu defeated Sloane Stephens by 6-0, 2-6, 6-1 as she moves on to the second round