Following Rafael Nadal's thrilling comeback in the 2022 Australian Open Final, there has been a lot of discussion about where this final ranks compared to other great grand slam finals.
Whilst there always is some recency bias involved, there is no doubt that last Sunday night's match was within the top ten grand slam finals of all time.
What was most impressive of all about this win, however, wasn't the match itself or any of the rounds prior. Instead, it was the fact that 'Rafa' fought through the toughest of adversity to take home his record-breaking 21st grand slam title.
As he revealed in his interview following his big win, "A month and a half ago I didn't know if I would play tennis again at a professional level due to various factors, including the problems I've had with my foot and with COVID."
In order to determine which grand slam final matches since 2000 have been the best, we look through two different criteria:
1. The quality of the match
2. The length of the match (has to be a 5-setter)
3. What it meant for the world of tennis with breaking records etc
Here's our top ten.
3. 3. 2022 Australian Open: Rafael Nadal (ESP) vs Daniil Medvedev (RUS)
Scoreline: 2-6, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4, 6-4, 7-5
Last Sunday night's match was an utterly brilliant display of courage, determination and skill from arguably the best to ever do it, Rafael Nadal.
Against all odds, the 35-year-old turned things around after being down 2 sets and 2-3 (0-40) in the third set.
Whilst his progress wasn't anything close to linear, ultimately, Nadal managed to defeat Russian Daniil Medvedev in a whopping 5 hours and 24 minutes.
Such a comeback brought the crowd and most notably the tennis world into absolute delirium at Rod Laver Arena.
