On January 30, 2022, Beijing time, the men's singles tournament of the 2022 Australian Open continued. In the last round, the No. 2 seed, Russia's Medvedev, defeated Tsitsipas 3-1 to advance to the Australian Open men's singles final by a 7-6 (7-5)/4-6/6-4/6-1 victory over Tsitsipas. The No. 6 seed, Spain's Nadal, defeated the No. 7 seed and Italy's Berrettini 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 to advance to the australian open men's singles final for the sixth time in his career.
This is the 17th time that the 35-year-old Nadal has participated in the Australian Open men's singles tournament, and in the past 16 competitions, he has won a total of 1 championship and 4 runners-up. Last season, he missed the second half of the season due to foot problems, and at the beginning of the new season, he won his 89th career title at the ATP 250 Melbourne race, showing good competitive form.
In addition, the 25-year-old Medvedev played in the Australian Open men's singles tournament for the sixth consecutive year, and in the past five years, he has only stopped in the first round when he made his 2017 debut. Last season, he set his best so far in all four Grand Slams – runner-up at the Australian Open, quarter-finals at the French Open, fourth round at Wimbledon and US Open. Whoever of them will eventually be able to lift the Grand Slam trophy is worth looking forward to!
In the first set, Nadal saved two break points in the second serve to take a 2-1 lead over Medvedev after a difficult save. In the fifth set, Medvedev had an all-round advantage in the bottom-line round, losing four straight points to break and lead Nadal 3-2! In the end, Medvedev maintained the advantage until the end, taking the first set 6-2 to lead Nadal 1-0.
In the fourth set of the second set, Nadal won a 40-beat round and then achieved his first break in the whole game, leading Medvedev 3-1! Medvedev then broke back, trailing the set to 3-4. In the eighth set, Nadal successfully shorted the break point and broke again, winning the set 5-3. Medvedev broke Nadal's serve in the ninth inning to win the set and defuse the set, grabbing 3-5 of the seventh and then scoring four consecutive points to win another set 7-6 (5) to achieve a 2-0 lead, just one set away from the champion.
The third set continued, the sixth set, Nadal in a 0-40 situation to defuse three consecutive break points, tenaciously held the serve to 3-3, with the key break of the ninth set, Nadal did not waste another chance in the serve to win the set, 6-4 to win the set, the current big score 1-2 behind Medvedev.
In the third set of the fourth set, Medvedev sent a double error at the break point, and Nadal once again took the lead to break 2-1. In the fifth set, Nadal successfully crossed the seventh break point to achieve a 3-2 lead after breaking again. With one more break advantage, Nadal pulled another set 6-4 and stubbornly dragged the game into the tiebreaker!
In the decider, in the 5th set, Nadal grabbed the second break point and took the lead. In the 6th set, the two sides were in a bitter battle, Nadal missed 4 set points, saved 3 break points, struggled to hold the serve, and led 4-2 in the set. Since then, the two sides have been protected for each of the three innings. In the 11th set, Nadal grabbed the third break point and broke again, 6-5. In the 12th set, Nadal scored four straight goals to win the set and win another set 7-5.
In this way, Nadal won 3 sets in a row with a big score of 2-0 behind. After 13 years, he won the Australian Open men's singles championship and achieved the "double circle grand slam" achievement! It was also Nadal's 21st grand slam title of his career, and he also surpassed Federer (20) and Djokovic (20) to set a new record for men's tennis that was unprecedented.