The Grand Slam title which Rafael Nadal called the ‘most unexpected’ of his career after incredible comeback in the final

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Rafael Nadal said farewell to professional tennis last year, ending his career with 22 Grand Slam titles.

Nadal retired at the Davis Cup Finals in Malaga, losing his final match to Botic Van de Zandschulp.

This brought an end to the Spaniard’s 23-year professional career, that included winning a record 14 Roland Garros titles.

Despite Nadal’s dominance at Roland Garros, it was actually another major tournament where he had one of his more standout victories.

Rafael Nadal says his 2022 Australian Open win was his ‘most unexpected’ Grand Slam title

Nadal had ended his 2021 season as early as August, and subsequently underwent foot surgery that left him on crutches.

Having returned to the ATP Tour for the 2022 season, there was a lot of uncertainty surrounding Nadal as he competed at the tour event in Melbourne.

Despite winning the Melbourne Summer Set title, it was still unclear as to how Nadal’s body would cope with playing best-of-five set matches at the Australian Open.

Nadal managed to overcome these odds and came through his section of the draw to reach his sixth Australian Open final after beating Matteo Berrettini.

Having already lost four of his five previous Australian Open finals, it seemed as though Nadal would be suffering the same fate again after losing the first two sets of the match against Daniil Medvedev.

However, after showing his renowned fighting spirit Nadal was able to pull off a miraculous comeback victory and win what we now know was his 21st and penultimate Grand Slam title.

When reflecting on the turn of events after the match, Nadal appeared as surprised as many of the fans watching in the stadium.

“The most unexpected, without a doubt (smiling). And most surprising I think for everyone,” said Nadal. “For you guys, too, I think. For me personally, especially, no? Because I know how I arrived here. I don’t know. Have been a very emotional night.

“Even now I am destroyed, honestly, physically. I can’t think much, I can’t remember a lot of moments of the match. Yeah, the support of the crowd have been just huge.

“I got very emotional during the whole match. Even if I was super tired, I couldn’t celebrate with them as usual, but I feel it inside, all the support helped me a lot during the whole match.”

Rafael Nadal explains whether he noticed anything change about Daniil Medvedev

Not only was Medvedev two sets up against Nadal, but he also had multiple break point opportunities in the third set.

Nadal was asked about this in his post-match press conference and whether he noticed any changes in his opponent throughout the five set thriller.

“I don’t know. I think Daniil is a great champion. He accepted very well the lose,” Nadal said at the time. “Yeah, I just can say thanks to him because have been a very hard night I think for him. I know how tough is to be in that position after all the chances that he had.

“He always have been nice with me. He understood how emotional and important was this match for me and this title for me. He was very nice at the end of the match, no?

“I don’t know if the crowd affect to him. Of course, is better to have the crowd on your side. Tonight was crazy for me. But I really believe that he has a great future in front. He going to feel this love of the crowd in the future, no, because he deserve.”

Medvedev suffered the same fate against Jannik Sinner, having led the Italian by two sets to love in the 2024 Australian Open final.

While he may no longer be competing, Nadal did congratulate Sinner on his Australian Open title defence after beating Alexander Zverev in the 2025 final.