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| Rafael Nadal |
Spanish tennis player, Rafael Nadal won from two sets down against Daniil Medvedev on Sunday afternoon, January 30 in an epic battle in Melbourne, to win the Australia Open.
It was a record 21st Grand Slam men's title in the most stunning fashion, as the 'clay king' fought back supported by a rapturous Melbourne crowd.
Coming into the tournament as the sixth seed, Nadal rallied to win 2-6 6-7 (5-7) 6-4 6-4 7-5 at the Rod Laver Arena.
Medvedev who won the US Open was going for his second successive major title.
The Russian who is ranked world number two in tennis, was in charge of proceedings before Nadal employed a good fighting spirit to win the game.
In the absence of the deported Novak Djokovic and the injured Roger Federer in Melbourne, Nadal is now one trophy ahead of his great rivals in the race to finish with most major men's singles titles.
" Without a doubt it is one of the most emotional wins of my career," he said after the trophy presentation.
Due to a foot injury, Nadal was restricted to only one tournament in the final seven months of 2021, while a bout of coronavirus in mid-December also left him "very sick with fever", so winning this tournament was a major achievement for the Spaniard.
Those setbacks meant the Australian Open was just Nadal's second competitive event in five months, having won a warm-up tournament at Melbourne Park earlier in January.
Previously in his career, Nadal had only won three matches from two sets down and the last of those came at Wimbledon in 2007 against Russia's Mikhail Youzhny.
Victory came at the end of the second longest Grand Slam final in history, just 30 minutes short of the 2012 final at Melbourne Park when Nadal lost to Djokovic.
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