from
Gerald Kleffmann
And then he was there. That moment when this final, the second longest in Grand Slam statistics, could actually come to an end. Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev faced each other for half a day this Sunday evening in Melbourne. Ah, what does faced mean? They ran endlessly, they chased each other, they tormented each other. Nadal was probably sweating four or five kilos off his body again. Medvedev cursed and talked to himself enough to fit in a thick adult book. Such dramaturgy, with so many twists and turns and spectacular rallies in detail, does not happen every day, even at this level. In 2012, at the same place, a similar event took place. Back then, Novak Djokovic needed 5:53 hours to defeat Nadal.