History within reach as Nadal powers to final
hwin over Berrettini sets up clash with top seed Medvedev hspaniard can beat Djokovic in race to 21 grand slam titles
Rafael Nadal defeated Italy’s Matteo Berrettini yesterday to move into the Australian Open final. He now stands only one win away from sinking a dagger into the heart of Novak Djokovic, the world No1, by claiming a 21st grand-slam title and with it the all-time record.
When Djokovic posted his infamous Instagram message on Jan 4, informing his fans that he was on his way to Melbourne with a medical exemption, who could have imagined that we would end up here?
Djokovic was then the runaway favourite to win a 10th Australian Open, and thus break clear of the three-way tie with Nadal and Roger Federer on 20 majors apiece. Nadal – by contrast – was an unknown quantity, having played only two matches since last year’s French Open because of congenital foot issues.
All the precedents say that you do not come back from a four-month lay-off and storm to a major final. Especially when – as Nadal has explained more than once this week – he and his support staff had reason to fear that his professional tennis career might be over.
But the Spaniard has played with extraordinary precision and power all fortnight, even if his stamina in the longer matches has not been quite as inexhaustible as it was in the past. Now his 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win over Berrettini has earned him a fifth career meeting with Russia’s Daniil Medvedev – the top seed – in tomorrow’s final.
In a semi-final played under the roof because of thunder and torrential rain, Berrettini came out of the locker room in a curiously listless frame of mind. He seemed to want to rally with Nadal, which was an odd choice for a man equipped with a 135mph serve and one of the biggest forehands in the business.
“I wasn’t in the right mood,” was the post-match verdict from Berrettini, who has battled stomach problems and a niggly ankle throughout this tournament, and needed a visit from the doctor during the first set.
The contest was drifting into the realms of anti-climax until Berrettini found an adrenalin surge at 2-2 in the third set. He then went on an extraordinary run of 23 straight points on his own serve, while picking up a break of his own with a thunderbolt of a forehand up the line. This was the period when
Nadal looked low on power, in a reprise of his third-set decline against Canadian Denis Shapovalov on Tuesday.
Suddenly, there was reason to think that Berrettini might spring an upset. Nadal went 49 minutes without winning a single point on the Italian’s mighty serve. But he is an expert in managing the ebbs and flows of energy required by grandslam tennis. As the fourth set moved into its critical phase, he returned to beast mode, ratcheting up his intensity as he broke for 5-3 and then served out comfortably for the win.
“For me it’s something completely unexpected,” Nadal said after the match, “so I am super happy. I am taking things a little bit in a different way.
“Of course, always with competitive, because it’s my personal DNA. But being very honest, for me is much more important to have the chance to play tennis than win the 21, no? Because that’s [what] makes me more happy in terms of general life, no? To be able to do the thing that I like to do more than achieving another grand slam.”
Speaking on Eurosport, American great John Mcenroe agreed that Nadal’s latest feat came out of the blue. “[The tournament] started out as a complete and utter train wreck with Djokovic,” Mcenroe said. “All we were talking about was how he was the guy who was going to make history and break the record [of 20 grand-slam titles].
“All of a sudden, things have
fallen into place for Rafa, who has to be the humblest, classiest champion of almost any athlete I’ve ever seen in any sport. It’s well-deserved for a guy to do this like Rafa Nadal. You can see how much it meant to him to get to the final again.”
Whatever happens in the final tomorrow, there will be consequences for Djokovic. Medvedev would climb to the top of the world rankings with a win. Nevertheless, Djokovic would surely prefer this to being pipped in the race to 21 majors, having narrowly missed his own opportunity when he lost to Medvedev in the US Open final four months ago.
As Medvedev put it in his oncourt interview yesterday: “I think Novak will be watching this one.”