He is now the most successful Grand Slam tennis player in history. By winning the Australian Open on Sunday January 30, Rafael Nadal now holds 21 major tournament titles, one more than his rivals Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.
The Spaniard had to fight to achieve this victory: leading two sets to zero, he overturned the match to beat the Russian Daniil Medvedev in five sets and in 5:24 (2-6, 6-7, 6-4, 6-4, 7-5).
His victory also allows him to become the second player in the Open era (since 1968), the fourth in history, to win at least twice each of the four Grand Slam tournaments, after Novak Djokovic and his victory at Roland- Garros in 2021. Three women have done better in the history of tennis: Margaret Court (24 majors), Serena Williams (23) and Steffi Graf (22).
With 90 trophies, the place of world number one occupied for two hundred and nine weeks, four Davis Cups and two Olympic gold medals, in singles and doubles, he has, at 35, the most abundant prize list, with those of Djokovic and Federer.
He himself places above his two victories on the grass of Wimbledon in 2008 and 2010, especially the first, won after a legendary match against the Swiss champion, co-author with him of one of the most exciting soap operas in the world. sports history. His Parisian triumphs, from 2005 to 2008, from 2010 to 2014 and from 2017 to 2020, were his masterpieces. No champion has ever managed to win the same Grand Slam tournament so often. No one either has ever managed to win 81 matches in a row on clay, a record established between April 2005 and May 2007, nor to accumulate 62 titles on this surface.