With the current suspension of the ATP and WTA Tours, we are opening up our US Open vault to bring you full match video of classic encounters through the years in New York.
Watch on YouTube: Rafael Nadal vs. Daniil Medvedev, 2019 men's singles final
It started out routinely. Rafael Nadal kept an inspired Daniil Medvedev at bay, winning two tight sets to wrestle control of the 2019 US Open men's singles final.
The 19-time Grand Slam champion seemed to break the Russian's resistance when he broke to go ahead in the third set, following the storyline of Nadal's quarterfinal and semifinal wins over Diego Schwartzman and Matteo Berrettini. In both of those matches, a pair of hard-fought sets gave way to a Nadal blitz in set three.
But in the final, with Nadal three games away from the trophy, the story was upended. No longer the finale of a tennis trilogy, it finished as a standalone US Open epic. Medvedev, who entered the US Open as the hottest player in tennis, showed his mettle in his first Grand Slam final, flirting with a historic comeback as he pushed Nadal deep into a fifth set.
The full match, all four hours and 49 minutes of it, is now available to watch on our US Open YouTube channel. For a coming attraction of sorts, view the match highlights below.
