On January 28, Beijing time, the Australian Open men's singles semifinals, Nadal played against Berrettini. In the first set, Nadal 6-3 went first. In the second set, Nadal won 6-2. In the third set, Berrettini pulled back a city 6-3. In the fourth set, Nadal locked in the win of the entire match 6-3. The score was 1-3, Berrettini attacked Nadal unsuccessfully, and the first final seat was released: Nadal!
As one of the post-95s representatives, Berrettini is now one of the best men's singles players in today's tennis world, and last year, the Italian star reached the Wimbledon final, creating Italian history. At this Year's Australian Open, Berrettini has eliminated Mid-Island Brandon, Kozlov, Alcalas, Busta, Monfils, of which Alcaraz and Monfils are all promoted in 5 sets. Nadal didn't face much of a challenge in the first two rounds, advancing 3-0 on both sides. Facing Kacharov in the third round, Nadal lost a set to make it 3-1. In the fourth round, Nadal was another 3-0 elimination. In the quarter-finals of the last round, Nadal defeated Canadian rising star Shapovalov 3-2 in five sets.
In his career, Nadal and Berrettini have only played each other once, and it still happened in the Grand Slam, and in the 2019 US Open semi-finals, Nadal won 3-0. It is worth mentioning that Nadal was also one of The Idols of Beretini's childhood. In this campaign, dueling with his childhood idol, Berrettini seemed to be a little unliving, hitting the ball too conservatively and not opening the angle. In the first set, Berrettini was broken at the beginning of the game, and Nadal easily established a 4-1 advantage in the set, 6-3, and Nadal won the first set. In the second set, Berrettini was again broken by Nadal in the opening stage, Anderettini had some collapse momentum, losing consecutive serves, and Nadal went down 6-2 in the set, leading 2-0.
In the next third set, Berrettini successfully saved the serve, which was the first time he saved the first serve in the men's singles semifinals, it is clear that Berrettini has gradually found his own rhythm of the game, after their respective saves, Berrettini completed a key break in the eighth set, leading 5-3 in the set, and then entered his own serve to win the set, the Italian did not waste the opportunity, won the set, won the set, won a city with a score of 6-3, and fell behind Nadal 1-2. Judging from the performance of the third set, Nadal's physical fitness encountered a limit period, which was very similar to the previous game with Shapovalov, at that time, Nadal also had physical problems after winning two sets in a row, and was dragged into the decider by the opponent for two consecutive sets, and it took 5 sets to pass the thrill.
For Nadal, the fourth set is very critical, once the opponent chases another set, the first 2 sets of the huge advantage will be in vain, will have to play 2 consecutive games of 5 sets, this situation is already 35 years old veteran Nadal, the physical aspect will face a greater test, and for Beretini, who is 10 years younger than Nadal, the physical advantage will be more obvious. Nadal withstood the pressure, saved all the way, and completed a victory break in the eighth set, the set score was 6-3, Nadal won, the big score 3-1 eliminated Berrettini, advanced to the 2022 Australian Open men's singles final, congratulations to Nadal.
In this campaign, Nadal won the Australian Open men's singles final and swept 5 records:
1, Nadal advanced to the Grand Slam final for the 29th time
2, Nadal's hardcourse wins just reached the 500-game milestone
3, Nadal reached the Australian Open final for the sixth time, rewriting his Australian Open semi-final record to 6 wins and 1 loss (the only defeat was the loss to Tsonga in 2008)
4, Nadal 36 Grand Slam semi-finals, won 29 of them, the winning rate exceeded 80%
5, two Grand Slam semi-finals against Berrettini, Nadal remained unbeaten in gold
Today, Nadal is also infinitely approaching 2 miracles:
First, the 21st grand slam crown, the first person in history
Second, double laps full slam
In addition, Nadal will also claim his 90th singles title and his 101st overall title!