Rafael Nadal reaches sixth Australian Open final with historic 21st grand slam in sight

Rafael Nadal defeated Italy’s Matteo Berrettini on Friday to move into the Australian Open final. He now stands only one win away from sinking a dagger into the heart of Novak Djokovic, the world No 1, by claiming a 21st major title and with it the all-time record.

When Djokovic posted his infamous Instagram message on Jan 4, informing his fans that he was on his way to Melbourne with a medical exemption, who could have imagined that we would end up here?

Djokovic was then the runaway favourite to win a tenth Australian Open, and thus break clear of the three-way tie with Nadal and Roger Federer on 20 majors apiece. Nadal – by contrast – was an unknown quantity, having played only two matches since last year’s French Open because of congenital foot issues.

All the precedents say that you don’t come off a four-month lay-off and storm to a major final. Especially when – as Nadal has explained more than once this week – he and his support staff had reason to fear that his professional tennis career might be over.

But Nadal has played with extraordinary precision and power all fortnight, even if his stamina in the longer matches has not been quite as inexhaustible as it was in the past. Now his 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win over Berrettini has earned him a fifth career meeting with Russia’s Daniil Medvedev – the top seed – in Sunday’s final.

In a semi-final that was played under the roof because of thunder and torrential rain, Berrettini came out of the locker-room in a curiously listless frame of mind. He seemed to want to rally with Nadal, which was an odd choice for a man equipped with a 135mph serve and one of the biggest forehands in the business.

“I wasn't in the right mood,” was the post-match verdict from Berrettini, who has battled stomach problems and a niggly ankle throughout this tournament, and needed a visit from the doctor during the first set.

The contest was drifting into the realms of anti-climax until Berrettini found an adrenaline surge at 2-2 in the third set. He then went on an extraordinary run of 23 straight points on his own serve, while picking up a break of his own with a thunderbolt of a forehand up the line. This was the period where Nadal looked low on power, in a reprise of his third-set decline against Denis Shapovalov on Tuesday.

Suddenly, there was reason to think that Berrettini might spring an upset. Nadal went a full 49 minutes without winning a single point on the Italian’s mighty serve. But he is an expert in managing the ebbs and flows of energy required by grand-slam tennis. As the fourth set moved into its critical phase, he returned to beast mode, ratcheting up his own intensity as he broke for 5-3 and then served out comfortably for the win.

“For me it's something completely unexpected,” said Nadal after the match, “so I am super happy. I am taking things a little bit in a different way. Of course, always being competitive, because it’s my personal DNA. But being very honest, for me is much more important to have the chance to play tennis than win the 21, no? Because that's [what] makes me more happy in terms of general life, no? To be able to do the thing that I like to do more than achieving another grand slam.”

Speaking on Eurosport, American great John McEnroe agreed that Nadal’s latest feat came out of the blue. “[The tournament] started out as a complete and utter train wreck with Djokovic,” said McEnroe. “All we were talking about was how he was the guy who was going to make history and break the record [of 20 grand-slam titles].

"All of a sudden, things have fallen into place for Rafa,” added McEnroe, “who has to be the humblest, classiest champion of almost any athlete I’ve ever seen in any sport. It’s well-deserved for a guy to do this like Rafa Nadal. You can see how much it meant to him to get to the finals again."

Whatever happens on Sunday, there will be consequences for Djokovic. Were Medvedev to win – and thus become the first man in the Open era to open his grand-slam tally with back-to-back titles – then he would climb to the top of the world rankings. Nevertheless, Djokovic would surely prefer this to being pipped in the race to 21 majors, having narrowly missed his own opportunity when he lost to Medvedev four months ago in the US Open final.

As Medvedev put it in his on-court interview on Friday, “I think Novak will be watching this one.”