It was a historic occasion for Rafael Nadal as he won his second title and 21st title overall in the Australian Open finals as he defeated Daniil Medvedev in the finals after playing a grueling five-set encounter.
Nadal’s victory of 2-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 over the Russian is currently the most discussed match in the world of tennis. Former World No. 1 John McEnroe also made some comments about the epic clash. He felt that Medvedev choked in the third set and failed to close the game out.
The Russian was 3-2 up in the third set having won the last two sets and also had three breakpoints on the Nadal serve to earn the crucial break. But somehow Nadal managed to hold that game and start his resurgence in the game. McEnroe feels that this was the turning point of the game.
In a recent interview with Eurosport, John McEnroe said that the World No. 2 should have held his nerve during the third set and closed out the game especially as Nadal looked surprisingly uninspiring during those points.
“The turning point of the match was 2-3, it was two sets to love,” said the former World No. 1. “It felt like Rafa felt deflated. I don’t want to say he was resigned because obviously he’s never resigned, he proved that, but it looked like he sort of expected that this was about to happen and losing in straight sets.”
Former World No. 1 feels that the 25-year-old allowed complacency to creep in as he played a couple of points casually hoping that he will eventually close the game out on straight sets. But that led to Nadal coming back in the game and eventually winning the Australian Open title.
“I think Medvedev played a couple, I don’t want to say careless, but maybe loose points. He got a little tentative because he could taste the finish line. And then all of a sudden it allowed the crowd back into the match because obviously, the crowd was a big factor, I think.”
Medvedev was also not happy with the crowd at the Australian Open right from the start. Even at the finals he constantly requested the umpire to take action against people who were heckling him during his service motion. McEnroe felt that the crowd got under Medvedev’s skin and that made him play a lot of rash shots and was also another turning point.
“Then he started to show his edginess and started showing he was frustrated with the crowd and that made it worse for him. And that was the turning point right there. As soon as that slight momentum shift, then he started to get tight. And basically to me he choked in the third set at that point. To me, he should have been up 4-2 in the third set.
“But once he let Rafa back in that allowed the crowd to get back in, and that was one of the most amazing efforts I’ve ever seen,” McEnroe concluded.
