
World No. 14 Diego Schwartzman says Rafael Nadal’s Australian Open victory was “super impressive.”
Nadal, 35, suffered a semifinal defeat at last year’s French Open.
After the French Open, Nadal took a two-month to heal a foot injury.
Nadal returned to action in Washington and that was his last tournament of the season as shortly after Washington he ended up calling it a season.
Nadal was unsure whether he would be able to come back as he was dealing with a severe foot issue.
Nadal made his comeback in early January at the Melbourne Summer Set.
Nadal won the Melbourne Summer Set and then made it all the way at the Australian Open to win a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam title.
“Everything he continues to achieve is crazy impressive: the players and everyone wanted to see how he would return to the Tour and on what it would like after six months and look how he came back,” Schwartzman told the ATP Tour en Espanol website.
Nadal pulled off a stunning comeback
Nadal appeared to be done in the Australian Open final but then created a major comeback to beat world No. 2 Daniil Medvedev 2-6 6-7 (5) 6-4 6-4 7-5.
Medvedev broke Nadal twice in the opening set to easily win the opener.
Medvedev then twice recovered from a break down in the second set and also recovered from a 5-3 deficit in the tie-break to take a two-set lead.
After failing to convert any of his three consecutive break points in the sixth game of the third set, Medvedev lost his serve in the ninth game as Nadal served out for the set in the 10th game.
Nadal blew an early fourth set break but broke Medvedev again in the fifth game and held on to his serve the rest of the way to force a decider.
Nadal led 5-3 in the decider but Medvedev leveled the set at five games apiece.
Nadal kept his focus as he broke Medvedev again in the 11th game and served out for the match in the following game.
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