US Open 2019: Nadal reduces Medvedev in a wonderful final and conquers the US Open | sports

A demon Blond is loose in New York. Her name is Daniil Medvedev, she is long as a giraffe and seems to have no muscles on her face because for five hours she doesn't offer a single sign of expression. In the circuit he has done his thing lately, but now he introduces himself to the world leading Rafael Nadal to a visit through hell that miraculously manages to escape the Spanish: 7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 4- 6 and 6-4, in 4h 51m. Tennis in the wild, a game of maximum voltage that underlines the office of the old guard and at the same time opens the door to a young boy of the new generation. Apparently, the future is already here. It closes with the number two frame raising its arms, exploding, but before it has been on the edge of the precipice.

With epic, of course, much suffering and to the sound of Frank Sinatra wins Nadal in New York. New York, New York, is heard outside the mastodóntica central track while 24,000 souls access through the mouths to witness the last great success of the king of the hill, King of the hill, the champion who already has 19 great and overwhelms Roger Federer in the back, 20, because if he can do it there (… If I can make it there), you can do it anywhere (… I'll make it anywhere), accompanies Sinatra's voice. Nadal is already just one step away from the large number, of that goal that nobody wants to talk about but that everyone, the three of them, he, the Swiss and Djokovic, have a fire engraved in their minds. It is only worth being the best.

Nadal triumphs again, the fourth in the New York tournament, and raises his second major in a fabulous season, in which he competes as an exclusively high-rise climber – five finals and five semifinals in the 11 tournaments he has participated in – and has raised four trophies: Rome, Roland Garros, Montreal and New York. Enjoy Flushing Meadows, where his warrior spirit and his sci-fi strokes enchant the staff, lover of the Show above the good forms of Paris, London or Melbourne. He has a great time playing on this hooligan court and the public enjoys it, pure adrenaline and pure vertigo, but also smart class and tennis.

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Medvedev demands it and in a good way, which sells all the expensive points and could be balling until tomorrow if necessary. The 23-year-old Russian has length to bore, kilometers arms and legs that reach everywhere and return the ball from any angle; He does not have, perhaps, the final shot, but forces Nadal to think about each exchange and takes him to the limit. In the final he proposes a puzzle, and the Mallorcan is fitting the pieces one by one with all the patience of the world. And that the story does not start too well because the referee, Ali Nili, already admonishes him for his delays in the first game of the game.

It is too soon, and Nadal does not fit anything well, which raffles the first option of breakage and on leaving the sidewalk he dedicates a sharp look and a few words. The decision stings, but the north does not lose a single moment. Follow his own, deciphering Medvedev and building the game as the architect in front of the plan, thinking about the whole and at the same time in every detail. The first set is a tense funambulism exercise in which both maintain the type and the Russian has tools for everything. Nadal harasses him, but it is cold, cold, cold. An asparagus (1.98) with the ice head. And that is 23 years old and takes a beating of aúpa this summer, but hold on, propose and challenge from beginning to end. He does not weigh the stage, the mamotreto that is the hot Arthur Ashe, nor the opponent, the tennis player of the privileged mind and the bombproof pride.

Everything takes place under a fine balance that is broken for the first time in a maneuver that Nadal has repeated several times, and with excellent results, throughout the tournament. Medvedev traces a level ball in the direction of the vertex and Nadal runs, sprints and gallops there with everything; He flexes, runs a difficult foreshortening in an unnatural position and decides to pump the ball upside down so that the Russian thinks, gets demonized, seizes and his response, also with the reverse, stays in the net. It is the beginning of the end for him, who fights everything, and the first bite of the Spanish one afternoon in which the actress Uma Thurman observes Nadal with admiration while that glorious one plays in the background twist from Jack Rabbit Slim’s from Pulp Fiction.

The decibels increase as the number two takes over more and more of the victory, eroding a Medvedev that replicates despite everything and insists again and again, without losing its composure for a single second. The young man is a wall, ways of potential winner of a Grand Slam in the not too distant future. However, Nadal punishes him with a pendular offensive and cracks. Yield a break in the second part (for 4-2) and there, yes, he knows that he has it really complicated. Not only repels, but also attacks, but the Mallorcan is immense.

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Then a couple of slaps are distributed – exchange of breaks to the fifth and sixth game – and New Yorkers, grateful that what they see is really good, claim more end to the man who booed in the first games for the bad manners of this: Medvedev, Medvedev, Medvedev! ” There is a tennis player there, well there is. That's the way it is: villain, who refuted scratching two sleeves with a majestic rearmament, ended up cheered. The Russian is superb – he does not feel or suffer, a true nightmare … -, beautiful the duel and infinite Nadal ("Rafa, Rafa, Rafa!"), Who sweated so beautiful, well, if he sweated. Until he failed that first break of the definitive sleeve was a sigh from ko. Still, Medvedev did not bow. Battle to the last thousandth.

There is everything in that last path. The break, a third warning to the winner to repeat the delay with the serve, a second break that seemed to sentence the final with 5-2 … And the nth insurrection of the boy with an iceberg soul and flares on the racket, punching, punching and punching nonstop. A pain. Imperturbable. But like the city, Nadal, the indestructible Nadal, never sleeps. Spanish never rests, never has enough. The king of the hill always wants more. 2010, 2013, 2017 and 2019, four clubs in New York, New York. It's from him again.

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