Monday, January 31, 2022

Nadal Wins Grand Slam Title #21!

Wow! Rafa Nadal just won the Australian Open. He beat World #2 Daniil Medvedev 2-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 in 5 hours and 24 minutes, the second longest Grand Slam final in history. And while any title that Rafa wins makes me happy, the way that he won the first major of the year and its historic significance just made me ecstatic beyond belief. Let's run down this absolutely mind-blowing achievement: 1. Nadal is the first male player to have won 21 Grand Slam singles titles. For the first time in his career, Rafa is ahead of every other male player in the major singles title count. 2. He now has two Australian Open titles, which means he joins Roy Emerson, Rod Laver, and Novak Djokovic as the only male players in history to win at least two each major. He and Novak are the only players who have achieved this feat in the Open Era so far. 3. He came back from two sets to love down in arguably his greatest comeback ever. In fact, he was 0-40 triple break point down at 2-3 in the 3rd set. Most people, including myself and many other Nadal fans, thought he would finish second for a fifth time in Melbourne. But Rafa kept fighting and kept working hard (and smart!) to give himself chances. In the end, he managed to overcome incredible odds and an impressive Medvedev to win.

4. That he would achieve this feat at the event where he had the greatest heartbreak made his victory even sweeter. Twice before, he was up a break in the fifth set against his greatest rivals - Djokovic in 2012 and Federer in 2017 - but he still ended up losing. In this year's final, when he served at 5-3 in the 5th set and got broken, most people felt he choked a bit because he was so close to the men's Grand Slam record. But in this interviews after, you could tell that his past losses were in his mind. He managed to regroup after getting broken and he immediately broke Daniil back. In his second chance to close out the match, he did so emphatically.

5. He won the Australian Open after winning the Melbourne Summer Set. This means that Rafa has won at least two titles every year for 18 consecutive years. I don't know if this is a men's record but it must be up there.

Rafa must also have a lot more confidence heading into the next Grand Slam event - the French Open, the event where he has had the greatest success. Whether he can build on his momentum this year and claim his 22nd Grand Slam title and 14th French Open remains to be seen. After all, Novak is still a supreme threat on any surface, even in Roland Garros where he beat Rafa last year. Also, Nadal was out for several months last year because of a foot injury that left him wondering if maybe it was time to retire. I really can't ask for much more since Rafa has already given his fans to much by achieving fantastic things in his illustrious career. That said, if he does accomplish more (such as his 22nd Grand Slam title), I certainly wouldn't complain haha.

The other big news of course is the fact that Novak Djokovic was prohibited to play the Australian Open since he wasn't vaccinated. I think that Tennis Australia could have handled this much better since they seemed to give Novak hope that he could play even if he was unvaccinated against Covid but in the end, Australian immigration didn't think so. That said, it will be interesting to see whether Djokovic eventually does get his shots so that he can compete at and win more Grand Slam events.

While we're talking about the Australian Open, congratulations as well to Ashleigh Barty for winning the women's title. She did so without dropping a set. I admit that when she moved up to #1 a couple of years ago, I was a bit uncertain about her, thinking that she reached the summit due to a lack of competition. Her relatively early losses in Slam events last year (round 2 in Roland Garros and round 3 in the US Open) seemed to support this idea. However, no other woman has been as consistent, whether it be Grand Slam tournaments or other events, and she has made a believer out of me. Barty has now won three majors, all on different surfaces. I won't be surprised if she wins more.

Major props also to Deirdre de Groot of the Netherlands for winning the women's wheelchair event. She has now won six consecutive Grand Slam events. Oh, and she also won the wheelchair women's doubles. That is just phenomenal! Meanwhile, Dylan Alcott, who together with De Groot achieved the Golden Slam last year, lost in the final of the Wheelchair quad singles event to Sam Schröder of the Netherlands. This was Dylan's last tennis match as he already said that the Australian Open would be his last tournament as a tennis player.

Congratulations to all the winners of the Australian Open!

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