The 35-year-old has surprised Australian Open watchers even more than himself as he has fought for his shot at a 21st slam
Rafael Nadal lays down his towel, spreads it across two parallel court-side advertising boards. He gently tugs at the near corners to ensure it is taut. Then looks at it again, pulls the far right-hand corner just a little. He squinches his face and surveys the symmetry, pats it with his hand. Content, he turns on his heels towards the baseline, ready for his serving ritual.
In the quarter-finals against Denis Shapovalov, Nadal completed his shirt-tug, hair-tuck, face-wipe routine 146 times. He won 100 of those points over the course of five sets, in four hours and eight minutes. He lost 4kg in sweat under the sun.