via Reuters
Tennis – Australian Open – Men’s Singles Final – Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia – January 30, 2022. Spain’s Rafael Nadal reacts during the final against Russia’s Daniil Medvedev. REUTERS/Morgan Sette
via Reuters
Tennis – Australian Open – Men’s Singles Final – Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia – January 30, 2022. Spain’s Rafael Nadal reacts during the final against Russia’s Daniil Medvedev. REUTERS/Morgan Sette
The Australian Open 2022 men’s final saw Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev meet for the fifth time.
Even though Nadal had a 75 percent win rate against Daniil Medvedev, Medvedev had won their last battle in 2020, at the Nitto ATP Finals. Interestingly, Nadal had also won against Medvedev on the same platform in 2019.
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Both Nadal and Medvedev being on the court certainly mean spectacle. However, the final saw another interesting development, when the arena was invaded by an intruder well into the second set.
Invasion on the court as Rafael Nadal almost lost serve.
Early on in the first set, Rafael Nadal lost his service game to Medvedev. In fact, right from the beginning of the match, Rafa seemed to be going guns blazing.
via Reuters
Tennis – Australian Open – Men’s Singles Final – Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia – January 30, 2022. Spain’s Rafael Nadal is seen in action as a security guard looks on during the final against Russia’s Daniil Medvedev. REUTERS/Asanka Brendon Ratnayake
This prompted many to wonder if he could keep it going throughout the match. Moreover, in the very third game of the match, a court-helper had to come to wipe the sweat dripping off the Spaniard on the baseline.
Some bozo just jumped out of the stands onto the court (probably about three meters), got dragged out.#AusOpen pic.twitter.com/u4xzjTaIEf
— Ben Rothenberg (@BenRothenberg) January 30, 2022
Ultimately, Daniil Medvedev won the first set against Nadal. On the other hand, the Rod Laver Arena crowd clearly had its favorite decided, as it cheered for every single point the Spaniard scored. However, the Spaniard seemed to bounce right back in the second, with a 5-3 game lead in the second set.
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Alas, as Medvedev almost Rafa’s serve, the Arena saw a spectator jump onto the court. Thankfully, security responded promptly and took him away before he could close the distance between any of the two players or the staff.
Here’s another angle of the intrusion in the Australian Open 2022 men’s final match.
The second set went to the tiebreak
via Reuters
Tennis – Australian Open – Melbourne Park, Melbourne, Australia – January 28, 2022. Spain’s Rafael Nadal in action during his semi-final match against Italy’s Matteo Berrettini. REUTERS/Loren Elliott
After losing out on the first set, Rafael Nadal surely had his work cut out for him in the second. Despite going up 5-3, he saw Medvedev fight back and force the second set into a tiebreak.
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Rafael Nadal has come back from a two-sets-to-love deficit 3⃣ times in his career.
Can our 2009 champion do it again tonight? #AO2022 • #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/GvC6n4JvCU
— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 30, 2022
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Ultimately, Daniil Medvedev took the second set from Rafael Nadal, too, securing a seemingly-insurmountable 2-0 set lead in the match. Nadal had not won a match from 2 sets down since 2007 when he did it against Mikhail Youzhny at Wimbledon.
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