Rafael Nadal wins the US Open and returns on the heels of Roger Federer

The Spaniard won Sunday's 19th Grand Slam title against Daniil Medvedev (7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4). Returning to a length of Switzerland (20 titles), he revived the hunt for the record.

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With his victory Sunday, September 8 in New York, Rafael Nadal is now, with 19 titles, a record length Roger Federer. TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP

On Sunday evening, September 8, at Flushing Meadows, Rafael Nadal whistled the end of the "Medvedev show" at the end of a 4:51 hitchcock finale (7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6- 4). A month and a half that the 23-year-old Russian had admired his lanky tennis during a North American tour that saw him chain four successive finals including a title (Cincinnati). And animated a fortnight in New York where the crowd will have first reserved its whistles to end with the ovation, Sunday.

There is little doubt that we will have the opportunity to see again soon the impudent escogriffe (1.98 m) in the game not very academic but the formidable tactical intelligence. Sunday, the bizuth was impervious to the pressure despite his first final in Major, and especially wonderfully inspired. Pride, it is necessary to go back a handicap of two sets to zero and a break of delay vis-a-vis Nadal in the final of Grand Slam. From the ground, it takes to take the Spaniard's throat and assault the net, as he did from the third set, gradually instilling his poison in the head of the Spaniard to graze the feat.

It took all the experience and mind of a Nadal not to get trapped too long and recover his spirits. With his victory, the 4e in New York, the 19e in Grand Slam, the Majorcan returned to a record length of Roger Federer (20). A very clever one who could have predicted such a scenario a few months ago …

Philtre of immortality

Melbourne, January 2018. When Roger Federer raises his 20e title of the Grand Slam, we say that the Swiss relegated for good Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic. With this third title in twelve months (Australian Open 2017-Wimbledon 2017-Australian Open 2018), Grandpa Federer, 36, thickens his legend a little more by adding a philter of immortality.

The Spaniard is relegated to four units (16) but his body continues to ask pardon, mortgaging, we think then, his chances to return to the race. Djokovic, he then points eight lengths (12). Struck by a strange wave to the soul, the Serb cares as much his elbow as his blues and seems out of play.

But he also plays the phoenixes, finds body and soul, and signs an improbable raid in twelve months: Wimbledon 2018, US Open 2018, Australian Open 2019, Wimbledon 2019. Back the pattern of the circuit and four lengths of Federer, the Serb can in turn consider becoming, one day, the most successful man of all time in Grand Slam.

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