Rafael Nadal advanced to the finals of the Australian Open after beating Matteo Berrettini of Italy 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the semifinals. Nadal is now one match away from being the first man to win a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam men’s singles championship.
In Sunday’s final, the sixth-seeded Nadal will meet the No. 2 seed Daniil Medvedev, who was seeded second.
On Friday, Medvedev defeated Stefanos Tsitsipas in four sets, 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-4, 6-1. Medvedev has won the last two matches in straight sets. However, Medvedev’s triumph was much more tumultuous than Nadal’s in terms of weather. Angry with chair umpire Jaume Campistol after losing his serve in the ninth game of the second set and receiving a code violation for a visible obscenity, Medvedev spent the majority of the changeover yelling at him because he believed that Tsitsipas’s father was illegally coaching his son from the player box.
It was an astonishing surge, and even after receiving a warning for coaching early in the fourth set, Tsitsipas was unable to win another game as Medvedev sped to the finish line.
In response to his temper episode, Medvedev said that he had lost many matches as a result of it. It was because I had lost attention and used too much energy that I realised what I’d done was a tremendous mistake as soon as I realised what I’d done.
When Tsitsipas was questioned about the outburst after the match, he responded with a grin.
“It’s definitely amusing,” he said. This is something that players like doing to throw you off your game psychologically. It’s possible that this is a ploy. It’s OK, nothing to worry about. “He’s not the most mature person in the first place.”
After receiving multiple coaching infractions in previous seasons, Stefanos Tsitsipas said that he will not be tutored on Friday, despite his belief that coaching should be permitted in men’s tennis. “I can’t hear a thing while I’m playing because the audience is so loud at every single moment,” he remarked of his playing experience. “You have to have excellent hearing in order to understand what your coach is saying.”
Medvedev, who faces a fine after the match as a result of his conduct, was able to regain his composure and seize total control of the semifinal. The matchup with Nadal on Sunday will be a rerun of the arduous U.S. Open final, which Nadal won in five sets in February.
However, neither Federer nor Djokovic participated in the competition this year. Federer is still recovering from knee surgery, and Djokovic, a nine-time Australian Open champion, was deported on the eve of the tournament after his visa was revoked by the Australian government and his appeal was rejected.
With Nadal out for the most of the second part of the 2021 season with a severe foot ailment that he claimed was threatening his career, the torch has been carried admirably by the other members of the Big Three in Melbourne. As soon as he returned to activity in late December for an exhibition in Abu Dhabi, he became ill with the coronavirus, which he got while at home in Majorca, Spain, before embarking on the lengthy journey to Australia.
His sixth and most surprising Australian Open final has come after winning a warm-up competition at Melbourne Park before to the main event. He has now surged through six more matches to reach his sixth and most unexpected Australian Open final.
He has only won this championship once, in 2009, when he defeated Roger Federer in the final. His time at Rod Laver Arena has been filled with disappointment, including a 5 hour 53 minute loss to Novak Djokovic in the 2012 final and another marathon loss to Roger Federer in the 2017 final despite having a 3-1 lead in the fifth set in the 2017 final.
Both Federer and Djokovic have taken aim at No. 21 in a Grand Slam final and failed to connect with their shots. Tennis player Roger Federer got two match points on his serve against Serbian world number one Novak Djokovic in the 2019 Wimbledon final, but failed to convert. Djokovic went up against Medvedev in the final of the U.S. Open last year, and he was defeated in straight sets.
A second Australian Open championship, on the other hand, would be quite welcome. Unlike Federer, who was 35 when he won the Open in 2017, Nadal is returning from an injury layoff and playing with more freedom and lower expectations than usual. He is the fifth oldest man to reach the singles final at the Open in the Open era, and like Federer, he is playing with more freedom and lower expectations than usual.
His willpower and passion were enough to get him through a five-set quarterfinal against Denis Shapovalov in the sweltering heat. After two days of rest, he returned to the court on Friday and used his skill set and pinpoint accuracy to hold off Berrettini beneath a closed roof, despite the rain pelting down on Melbourne throughout the match.
