And then there were two.
Sunday, we ring down the curtain on the 2019 US Open with a men’s final that brings together one of the greatest players in the history of the game with a player who seems perfectly positioned to make a genuine go at greatness. Day 14 features second-seed Rafael Nadal taking on the No. 5 seed, Daniil Medvedev, for the US Open men’s singles title. Nadal is making his fifth second-Sunday showing in Flushing; Medvedev, his first. Two stellar talents who’ve stood above the rest for two weeks now share one similar aim—to stand alone at the end of the day.
Across two weeks that have been a fortnightmare for most of the guys with numbers next to their names, No. 2 Nadal has been a consistently reliable presence, his trademark toughness and tenacity carrying him from the draw’s bottom line to the tournament’s finish line. The 33-year-old Spaniard has played his way into his third Grand Slam final of 2019, having earlier reached the ultimate round at both the Australian Open and Roland Garros.
Though he lost to Novak Djokovic in the Melbourne final, Nadal finished first in Paris, knocking off Roger Federer in the semis and Dominic Thiem in the final to capture his record 12th French Open crown. He is the only player—man or woman—to win the same Grand Slam tournament 12 times. The last time Nadal reached three major finals in a single season was in 2017—which was also the last time he won the US Open.
Though most kings haven’t handled as much clay as Nadal, the Spaniard long ago proved that he can handle the hard stuff as well. His 18 career Slam singles titles are second only to Federer’s 20, and his 27 major finals also trail only Federer’s 31. In addition to his 12 French Open crowns, Nadal also owns one Australian Open and two Wimbledon titles. He’s won here three times before, giving him a career Grand Slam. Through six rounds here this year, Nadal now has a career mark of 456-131 on hard courts, and his lifetime record on the cement floors of Flushing is now 63-11.
Nadal has reached this final dropping only one set along the way, losing the second set in his fourth-round encounter with 2014 US Open titlist Marin Cilic before running away with the four-sets win. That one speed bump aside, the second seed has successfully raised his game in each successive round, peaking perfectly with his brilliant ousting of Matteo Berrettini in the semis.
In that match, Nadal fought off an early challenge from the Italian, saving two set points in the opening stanza before employing that extra gear only available in the champions’ package to systematically dismantle Berrettini’s powerful ground game by serving brilliantly, returning equally well, and raising his already ethereal game to a whole other level.
For every Berrettini push, Nadal shoved. He won 90 percent of his first serve points—and 74 percent of his second-serve points. He held all 14 of his service games, never once facing a single break point, while converting on eight of 14 break chances. He had 31 winners and made only a paltry 18 unforced errors.
If we learned anything from this match, it’s that even if you manage to get close to Nadal, it’s pretty darn hard to stay close. The Spaniard owns virtually every shot in the book, which means that however you choose to test him, he’s more than likely to have an answer. Even his Plan “B” rates an “A.”
Of course, before Nadal gets to the head of this class, he’ll need to deal with Medvedev, who has posted some pretty high marks here himself over these two weeks, brilliantly showcasing his own talents and toughness as a player in making his deepest-ever drive at a Slam. Only two of his six matches so far have finished in three sets; the other four have all gone four. Across that stretch, he’s won all four of the tiebreak sets he’s contested.
Medvedev plays a power game with impressive precision. His serve is one of the game’s best. Through six matches, he’s nailed 88 aces—second only to John Isner at this year’s event. He’s won 91 of 109 service games. But he also backs up the fastball with an impressive array of weapons, returning brilliantly, covering the court especially well, and using his big ground game to paint lines on cement like a highway worker.
It’s been an interesting journey—to say the least—across the Flushing fortnight for the 23-year-old Russian. One of the men’s tours more mild-mannered members, Medvedev found himself playing the decidedly out-of-character role of villain after some on-court antics in his third-round match against Feliciano Lopez invoked the ire of the New York crowd, which booed him to victory in both that match and his next before apparently coming to the realization that this superb player was actually quite a decent guy.
“I will not say I am a good person or a bad person,” said Medvedev after his semifinal win. “I can only say that I am a calm person in life. I have no idea why the demons go out when I play tennis.
“To make me angry, you need to do something crazy for one week in a row,” he added. “You need to, I don’t know, come to my hotel, knock on my door at 6 o'clock in the morning for seven days in a row. Then I’m going to be maybe mad a little bit. If not, I’m really calm.”
And of course, as former New York Yankees’ outfielder and Hall-of-Famer Reggie Jackson once so famously—and accurately—observed of those who fill the seats at sporting events: “They don’t boo nobodies.” Throughout this entire summer, Medvedev has time and again proved himself to be somebody—somebody pretty special.
While he’d only had a so-so season at the year’s first three Slams—reaching the fourth round of the Aussie Open before losing in the first round of the French and third round at Wimbledon—the Russian has now reached the final of every tournament he’s played after departing the All-England Club. He lost in the final of both the Washington, D.C. and Montreal events before taking the crown at Cincinnati, ousting Djokovic in the semis there. That was the second time this year that Medvedev took down the game’s No. 1.
Today, he gets another shot at No. 2, having lost to Nadal in the final of Montreal this summer in their only career head-to-head. But as a wise man once said, “That was then; this is now.” Both men are playing even better now than they were a month ago; both have turned a wave of momentum into a tsunami. And that’s exactly why this one should be particularly special—the sort of big-time heavyweight slugfest that usually has ropes around it.
This is a chance for Nadal to creep closer to Federer’s all-time major total. It’s also a chance for Medvedev to start a count of his own. Competition is, after all, about chances. Today, the second seed has the better one. In a fabulous four, Nadal is the 2019 US Open men’s champion.
