Rafael Nadal has cemented a legacy as the greatest male tennis player of all time after he won his second Australian Open crown in an unforgettable marathon final against Daniil Medvedev.
The triumph will go down as one of his most iconic victories, less than two months after he thought a long-term foot injury may have forced him to retire.
He is now the only male player ever to win 21 slams.
An exhausted Nadal served out his fairy tale comeback win 2-6 6-7 6-4 6-4 7-5 sending Rod Laver Arena into pandemonium.
Jim Courier said on TV the victory “re-writes history” as Nadal broke the deadlock of 20 grand slams he shared with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.
Medvedev appeared well on his way to a straight sets victory after he broke Nadal’s heart in a rollercoaster second set tiebreak. But Nadal responded as all the great champions do to win the next two sets.In the fifth set the drama got plain silly. Nadal was broken trying to serve the match out at 5-4, but then showed incredible mental strength to come out two service games later and land the decisive blow that gave him an opportunity to come out and serve for the match.
It was a contest Todd Woodbridge said will go down as one of the greatest tennis matches of all time and the 5hr 25mins battle set a record as the second longest Aussie Open final ever — the longest since the 5hs 53mins final between Nadal and Djokovic in 2012.
With his victory, Nadal overtook Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic in the list of most men’s singles Majors and become the first ever male player to win more than 20 Grand Slam titles in singles.
