Rafael Nadal reached his 29th Grand Slam final—in a bid to become the first man to win 21 slams—as he beat Italian Matteo Berrettini 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the semifinals of the Australian Open.
Nadal makes it to his sixth final in the slam down under, having won it in 2009 and lost in the 2012, 2014, 2017 and 2019 editions.
The two were meeting for only the second time. A lot had happened since Nadal beat Berrettini in 2019. The Spaniard had spent almost the most of last year out of action, while the young Italian rose to become a constant feature in the top 10.
While Nadal won the first two sets easily, coming off a draining five-set quarterfinal, Berrettini really showed why he’s considered one of the best in the world with some excellent shot selection to take the third set. Even Nadal was left applauding some of the unplayable shots.
But it was not enough for the Italian, as the 20-time Grand Slam champion dug deep and eliminated him in the fourth set.
There is a decade between their ages—35 and 25—and while Berrettini made Nadal run, the veteran did not give in. Berrettini broke Nadal for the first time ever in the third set and won 14 aces.
Nadal will play the winner of the second semifinal of the day between world number four Stefanos Tsitsipas and world number two Daniil Medvedev.
Should Nadal win the final on Sunday, he not only becomes the first man to win 21 Grand Slams—he is tied with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic—but also the first to win all four slams at least twice.
When asked about it after his semifinal win, Nadal shrugged it off. “For me it’s all about the Australian Open more than anything else. I have been a little bit lucky in my career with some injuries. At times I played good finals against Novak in 2012 and Roger in 2017 (he lost both). I was lucky to win once in 2009 but I never thought about another chance in 2022.”
