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In a battle that will survive on the night of time, Rafael Nadal ended the resistance of an admirable Daniil Medvedev to conquer his fourth US Open and nineteenth Grand Slam title, after winning 7-5, 6-3 , 5-7, 4-6 and 6-4, in four hours and 49 minutes. It was a madness final, a test of physical, technical and emotional strength for two players that brought the more than 24,000 spectators who filled Arthur Ashe to the frenzy. Forced to an unthinkable splurge when he dominated by two sets to zero and took 3-2 advantage in the third set, Nadal deployed all his mystique to break the Russian player. He lifted two break balls after losing the first game of the fifth set and achieved the final break in the fifth game. [Narration and statistics]

The triumph has an extraordinary meaning, since it places only a large Roger Federer, whose succulent bag was considered almost unattainable not too long ago. There are 12 Roland Garros, four US Open, two Wimbledon and an Australian Open.

In the field of the closest, there are notable hierarchical consequences. It is 640 points from Djokovic, number 1 in the world, with nothing to defend from here at the end of the course, against the commitments made by the Serbian. It is likely to close the year with the best number.

With an exemplary attitude throughout the entire game, Medvedev, who is already fourth in the world, stood up until the last moment. He is a rooted tennis player, protagonist of a superb summer, who appeared full of conviction, without feeling the physical wear of a few weeks more than loaded or the responsibility of being in his first final of a 'big'. He looked on the canvas, but he extended the fight by releasing his hand until he took Nadal to the limit. In a fairly comfortable tournament, where for the third time in his career he planted in the final of a major without crossing any top 20, the Spanish met a careful opponent, a young man who, as Jimmy Connors said of Nadal himself in its beginnings, play as if it were ruined. As he did before Djokovic in the Montreal semifinals, Medvedev knew how to act accordingly and be more proactive when he began to see himself with water around his neck.

Endowed with youthful energy, without having lost on the field the vigor with which it amazed at the time of its irruption, although it moves with greater aggression and economy of means, nobody would say that Nadal is the second oldest champion of the United States Open In the professional era. Since Ken Rosewall took the tournament in 1970, with 35 years, there has not been another older player to lift the cup. There are many data that endorse its triumphant evolution.

Determined to question the topics that are built around him, it turns out that he is the one who has won the most Grand Slam titles over 30 years, one more than Federer, Djokovic, Laver and Rosewall, unsuspected news when he was supposed to be the victim of his own ardor as time went by.

The beginning of the final was not easy for him either. In the first game he faced a warning for delayed service and a break ball. In the third, he lost the serve, to recover it immediately. In principle, Medvedev did what was expected: he ran like a possessed for each ball and tried to take advantage of his service to accelerate the game. Patient, with a clear approach like the one he drew in the Montreal final, where he won 6-3 and 6-0, Nadal varied heights and insisted with the reverse cut to bend the giant Muscovite, who particularly hurt the low balls from its 196 centimeters. It was a work of zapa to destabilize his rival, whose firmness, quality and character have given him the well-known revenues: he is the tennis player with the most victories in 2019, 50, and reached the final with 20 wins in the last 22 games.

At times, Nadal managed to denature him. Medvedev needed to add arguments that are not part of his usual repertoire. Threw left and went to the net, assumed that it was increasingly difficult to earn points from the bottom. However, the rope was tightening. He soon began to suffer to move his services forward and, with a set down, only the imperturbability of his face belied the evidence that Nadal narrowed the fence. He gave up the second after opposing less resistance and seemed to dig his pit with the break granted in the fifth game of the third set. Nothing of that. He recovered it, in a new sample of his irreducible mood and undertook the admirable reaction that came to compromise Nadal's triumph. But the left-handed always comes back. Once again, he showed that no one is as strong as him.

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