“I only think of the Australian Open! » After a complicated year, Rafael Nadal, 35, is well and truly back at the start of 2022 and he is showing his ambitions: to win the first Grand Slam tournament of the tennis season. This would also allow him to become the only record holder of titles (21) in major tournaments, one more than his rivals, the Swiss Roger Federer and the Serbian Novak Djokovic.
Friday, January 28, in Melbourne, the Spaniard, world number 5, eliminated the Italian Matteo Berrettini in the semi-finals (6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3). He will play his sixth final at the Australian Open on Sunday. Either against the Russian Daniil Medvedev (2and world), or against the Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas (4and worldwide).
“I played very well in the first two sets. It’s been a long time since I’ve played so well.”said Rafael Nadal after his match against Matteo Berrettini, which was played with the roof closed due to very heavy rain accompanied by very strong winds.
After comfortably winning the first two sets, the Spaniard suffered a downturn in the third, in which he committed seven unforced errors. “I made a bad play on my serve at 4-3 and he found his shots. » In the fourth set, he then earned the break to lead 5-3 and serve for the match. He did not miss his chance.
For Rafael Nadal, this final at the Australian Open comes after five months without competition, with many questions about his future due to a left foot injury.
In Melbourne, the Spaniard won only once, in 2009. The Australian tournament was rather, until then, the preserve of Novak Djokovic: nine finals played, nine victories. But this year, the world number 1 could not defend his title: not vaccinated, he was expelled by the Australian authorities before the start of the tournament.
If he wins the title on Sunday, Rafael Nadal would also become the second player in the Open era, the fourth in history, to have won each major tournament at least twice. A feat achieved by Novak Djokovic in 2021 when he won Roland-Garros for the second time.
