It’s easy to say, but difficult to assimilate: Rafa Nadal has been winning at least one title for 19 years in a row. Since he debuted his track record in Sopot 2004, he has racked up trophies for not a single season. This Sunday in Melbourne he lifted the 89th of his career by beating Maxime Cressy 7-6 (6) and 6-3 in 1h47 in the final., 24-year-old American and 112th in the world, serve and volley tennis player, a style that the Balearic praised, and it must also be said, little more. Even so, Nadal’s tremendous merit, who had not played for five months due to his chronic injury to his right foot and He had not been able to train for 10 days before traveling to Australia because he contracted COVID.
Rafa took a boomerang as a trophy, a metaphor for a career, his, full of returns. Like that typical Australian object, it always comes back. “I feel privileged and a very lucky guy to be here again and to come back from some difficult moments with injuries. I can not be happier. It means a lot to have a trophy in your hands again”Said the Spaniard, who thanked his team and his family for their success. “You support me at all times, in good times and in bad.”
His absolute triumph is the second he has achieved at the Rod Laver Arena, after the 2009 Australian Open. “The name of this court makes it very special,” said Nadal after posing a very serious and orderly game against an opponent who did not give him rhythm at any time due to his old-fashioned way of playing and to which he knew how to pass on numerous occasions in their uploads to the network. Key was the set ball that the winner of 20 Grand Slams lifted in the first heat tiebreaker. and how he was able after scoring three points in a row, two of them against Cressy’s serve, to get ahead.
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The second round was easier for him and he imposed his category and quality with some winning shots (he finished with 33 in total and only seven unforced errors) from direct remains. In the end, he even beat a gunner like the American in aces (9-8), who had reached the game for the title since the previous one and after winning, among others, Munar, Opelka and Dimitrov. Nadal triumphantly finished a tournament in which I only need to win three games with a very positive feelings, one week from the first major of the course.