- Nadal beat new No 1 Medvedev 6-3, 6-3 to advance to Mexico Open final
- It was the rival’s first meeting since Nadal’s epic Australian Open win
Last month, Rafael Nadal shocked the world when the 35-year-old Spaniard fought back from two sets down against Daniil Medvedev to win an epic five-set victory in the 2022 Australian Open and claim his 21st – and greatest – major championship. Nadal has now underlined that famous triumph with a 6-3, 6-3 straight-sets win in the rematch, crushing his Russian rival – and recently crowned ATP world No 1 – to advance to the Mexico Open final and remain undefeated in his 14 matches this year.
Medvedev only yesterday learned that he had broken the five-year stranglehold of ‘The Big Three’ on men’s tennis’s No 1 ranking. One of Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Nadal had held the top slot since Briton Andy Murray ceded it on August 20, 2017. Medvedev, the 2021 US Open champion, was all set to ascend to the top of the pile when the next batch of rankings was released Monday February 28.