Rafael Nadal defeats Daniil Medvedev in the Australian Open in 2022 to become the first man to win 21 Grand Slam titles.

Rafael Nadal won his historic 21st Grand Slam title by defeating Daniil Medvedev in a classic tennis match. This is the most Grand Slam titles won by any men's singles player in history. Prior to the match, Nadal was tied for the most men's singles titles with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

It was the second-longest Australian Open final, following Novak Djokovic's five-set victory over Rafael Nadal in 2012, which lasted 5 hours and 53 minutes. Nadal became only the fourth man in history to win all four major titles at least twice with his 2-6, 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 victory, which began Sunday night and was delayed for a bit in the second set when a protester jumped onto the court.

A vintage Nadal, riding a wave of raucous crowd support, produced one of his best performances to deny Medvedev once more, less than three years after leaving the Russian heartbroken in five sets in the 2019 U.S. Open final.

Nadal came back from two sets down to force a fifth set in the Australian Open final, then defeated US Open winner Daniil Medvedev. After Medvedev grabbed a 6-2, 7-6 (5) lead, Nadal won the third and fourth sets 6-4, 6-4. Nadal broke for a 5-3 lead in the fourth and then had a set point, but Medvedev saved and held to force the 20-time major winner to serve it out once again.