by “It’s amazing to achieve another Grand Slam title at this moment of my career. It means a lot to me,” the 35-year-old said. “This title has a big significance. I never will say I deserve, because I think a lot of people fight and a lot of people deserve. But I really believe that I hold a very positive spirit. For the last six months, I really fought a lot to try to be back on court.”
Rafael Nadal with his 21 Grand Slam title trophies. (USA TODAY Sports, Action Images, Reuters Photo)
“I feel lucky to achieve one more very special thing in my tennis career,” Nadal said. “I don’t care much if I’m the one or not who is the best in history. For me it’s about enjoying nights like today. That means everything for me. To win the second Australian Open means even more to me than any other thing.”
Nadal who looked down and out at the half-way mark, especially given that he was up against the world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev, who was reading his play like a book, said he was encouraged not undone by the second set.
“The situation was critical, but sport is unpredictable. I had a big chance in the second set,” said Nadal, the first man in the Open Era to comeback from two-sets-to-love down in the Australian Open final. “I was repeating to myself during the whole match, I lost a lot of times here after having chances, sometimes I was a little bit unlucky. I just wanted to keep believing till the end. I wanted to give me a chance.”
Nadal called his charge to the title ‘most unexpected’, even ‘surprising’. “It has been a very emotional night,” he told the media in a post-match interaction. “Even now, I’m destroyed physically.”
