In a pulsating clash at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing Meadows on Sunday, Rafael Nadal beat Daniil Medvedev to claim his 19th Grand Slam title and 4th US Open title. The thrilling 4 hours and 50 minutes clash, attended by a record crowd, witnessed Nadal inching one step closer to levelling Roger Federer’s record of all-time Grand Slams (20). Nadal had earlier won 2010, 2013 and 2017 US Opens.
The 33-year-old Spanish sent fury across the net in the early two sets. Nadal with an illustrious lead of 7-5, 6-3 was edging closer to victory, before Medvedev bounced back pushing Nadal on the back foot to win the 3rd and the 4th set (5-7, 4-6). Nadal, however, who was facing a fresh finalist for the record sixth time, overpowered Medvedev to claim the final set and a whopping cash prize of $3.85 million.
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Here are the records broken
With this win, Nadal became the first player to win the most Grand Slam titles post 30 years of age. Nadal has won five Grand Slam titles, eclipsing the records of Federer, Djokovic, Rod Laver and Ken Rosewall. The aforementioned have won four each Grand Slam title each post 30
Moreover, Nadal now officially maintains the second spot when it comes to the most number of matches won by any tennis player in a calendar year. Nadal has won a whopping 47 matches this year, only behind Medvedev who has 50 wins. The other men on the list are Roger Federer with 43 wins followed by Novak Djokovic with 41.
With the 19th Grand Slam title in the bag, Nadal has now become the joint second-most US Open title winner. The list toppers include Jimmy Connors, Pete Sampras, and Roger Federer with 5 US Open titles each, followed by John McEnroe and the fresh entry, Nadal.
Last but not least, Nadal was facing a fresh first-time Grand Slam finalist for the third year in a row. With winning the same, Nadal now has won six of his seven Grand Slam finals while facing a fresh opponent. His only loss we could recall was against Stan Wawrinka, against whom he lost in the 2014 Australian Open.
