Daniil Medvedev in the battle against Nadal. Photo: Simon Baker/AP/TASS
In Russia, they were waiting for the triumph of Daniil Medvedev, well, they were really waiting for it. Everything was going to this, and initially the very course of the final match at the Australian Open tennis championship confirmed the forecasts: Danya will take his second Grand Slam in a row, become the first racket of the world ranking and finally establish himself as the main heir to the great tennis trio Federer-Nadal- Djokovic. Russia was looking forward to Medvedev's triumph, and the world was rooting for his opponent directly at the Rod Laver Arena, even too clearly and furiously.
The turning point was already in the second set, and in the third, Rafa turned from a tired veteran into a fearless fighter in front of his eyes, and by the middle of the sixth hour he had issued his record 21st title in the Grand Slam tournaments. As in the final of the US Open in 2019, the confrontation between Medvedev and Nadal turned out to be epic — only then the Russian won back from the score 0:2 in games, and now his opponent, but the outcome was the same, and not in favor of the Russian.
At a press conference, Medvedev uttered the now famous monologue about a child who stopped dreaming, but something prevented him from sincerely pitying the first Russian racket
and bring down their anger exclusively on the audience, so disappointing the contender for the title. To be honest, even after the first set, outright won by Medvedev, I had almost no doubt that Nadal would rise up and take his toll. Not that I was rooting for him — no, just out of the whole great trinity, the Spaniard causes me the least sympathy precisely because of his deadly power of an almost perfect mechanism. And only when this mechanism failed, more and more often lately, sympathy arose for him.
For Daniil Medvedev, it was necessary to worry a priori — Russia has been waiting too long for the appearance of a tennis player who will again challenge the greats. Waited not today,
and not today it turned out that rooting for Danya is difficult. That he is not quite the one who was expected. Rather, it’s not like that.
The tennis world felt this even earlier than its Russian part — we quickly blinded the image of a hero, and Danya defiantly breaks out of it.
Understanding this is no less, if not more interesting than analyzing tennis directly in the final match. Both the quality of tennis and the quality of the intrigue fully corresponded to the status of the confrontation. As good as the 25-year-old Medvedev was at first, the 35-year-old Nadal ended up being stronger physically, psychologically and mentally. The audience was on his side, and Medvedev also fought with them. Not the first time, but the first time so frankly. The fact that the public behaved in an inappropriate way, not at all intelligent and too one-sided is a fact, but here, too, everything is not as simple as it might seem.
Medvedev once remarked that he could be different, but always sincere. He does not like to pretend, in some cases he does not want to be, like everyone else, politically correct, he tries to restrain himself, but sometimes it does not work out.
At different times, both rivals and judges got it, and, worst of all, the public, even when it deserved it. And the public not only reacts sharply to offensive things — it also remembers them for a long time.
Today in Australia, the tournament began with an epic and not very beautiful story of expulsion from the continent as a malicious «anti-vaxxer» of the current champion and holder of 20 Grand Slam titles, Novak Djokovic. This greatly added to the nervousness of the entire tournament, scandals could not be avoided, and the number one Russian tennis player became almost their main hero. After the second round match with Nick Kiryos, Medvedev complained about the low intellectual level of the audience. During the semi-finals with Stefanos Tsitsipas, he yelled at the referee, who did not react quickly enough to the prompts of the father of the Greek tennis player, which is forbidden to do during the match.
In fact, Medvedev was right, but the words «are you stupid?!» I had to keep it to myself.
Actually, after this incident, which cost the tennis player a fine of 10 thousand dollars, it became clear to me personally that Medvedev could not win the final. It’s just that such things don’t go unpunished, and I don’t mean a fine at all.
It would be surprising if the audience in the final began to drown for Danya. Yes, he had the right to behave as he wanted. But in this case, it was not worth being offended by a predictable response. There is a type of athlete for whom the hostility of the audience only helps to gather and concentrate on the result, and Medvedev gave reason to think about him that way, but in the final and in the tournament in general, this was not the case. When the Russian began to lose the thread of the game, he did not find anything better than to ask the referee on the tower, John Bloom, to explain to the audience, zealously rooting for Nadal, that they are idiots during the break between the third and fourth games: “No brains, empty heads.” In the fourth set, he again turned to Bloom with a request to influence the audience: «They are idiots,» please «does not work with idiots.»
Naturally, it was not necessary to expect that the “idiots” would sharply grow wiser after the suggestion, or at least stop whistling and buzzing at one of the rivals. Daniil did not give up, he fought to the last, in the fifth decisive set he even caught his killer serve again, but Rafa could no longer be stopped. After Nadal took the last two games to zero, Medvedev had to tell him “you are an incredible champion” and thank his team. The public did not get a «thank you», and then there was the same monologue at the press conference.