Rafa Nadal defeated Daniil Medvedev in the final of the Australian Open after beating the Russian in a marathon that lasted 5 hours and 24 minutes and which has become the longest match of the tournament, in addition to having concluded past one o’clock in the morning this Monday in Melbourne.
However, the match against Medvedev in the Australian Open final is not the longest match Nadal has played in his career. Below we review the longest matches of Rafa Nadal’s career in the Grand Slam.
5. Agonizing game against Dimitrov
Nadal’s fifth longest match in a Grand Slam was played by the Spaniard in the semifinals of the 2017 Australian Open against the Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov. Nadal sweated a lot to beat the Bulgarian in five sets 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (5) 6-7 (4) and 6-4 after 4 hours and 56 minutes of play.
4. A historic duel with Verdasco
Eight years earlier, in 2009, Nadal met in the semifinals of the Australian Open with another Spanish tennis player, Fernando Verdasco, who did not make things easy for Nadal, who won the match 6-7 84), 6- 4, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (1) and 6-4 after 5 hours and 10 minutes of play. It was the prelude to the final with Roger Federer, where Nadal won his first title at the Australian Open.
3. The eternal semifinal with Djokovic at Wimbledon
One of the toughest matches that Rafa Nadal has had to face is the 2018 Wimbledon semifinal in which Novak Djokovic was measured. In a match that had to be played over two days after the very long semi-final between Kevin Anderson and John Isner and due to the Wimbledon limit of not playing later than midnight, Djokovic beat Nadal 6-4, 3-6, 7 -6 (9), 3-6 and 10-8 in a match that lasted 5 hours and 15 minutes.
2. Five hours of battle for Grand Slam 21
Nadal’s final with Daniil Medvedev sneaks into the second position of longest matches played by the Spaniard in Grand Slam. Nadal won the historic Grand Slam number 21 after beating the Russian in five sets 2-6, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4 and 7-5 after 5 hours and 24 minutes of battle
1. The longest Grand Slam final in history
The Medvedev-Nadal is not the Balearic’s longest match in a major, since that honor has fallen, for 10 years, to the grand final that Nadal and Novak Djokovic gave us at the Australian Open in 2012. In that match, the longest Grand Slam final in history, Djokovic won 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-5 after a battle of 5 hours and 53 minutes.
Bonus: the best tennis match in history
Despite not being in the Top-5 of Nadal’s longest Grand Slam matches, the Spaniard has the honor of having played what, for many, is the best match in tennis history: the 2008 Wimbledon final against Roger Federer. In this match Nadal won his first title on the grass in London after winning 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8) and 9-7 after 4 hours and 48 minutes. According to the ATP, this is the match in which Rafa Nadal has played the most points in a Grand Slam with 413, with a balance of 209 points won for Rafa and 204 for Federer. In the match against Medvedev, the Spaniard and the Russian played 371 points, Nadal’s fifth game with the most points in a Grand Slam.