As he stepped up to the line at 5–4 in the fifth set with tennis history on his racket, Rafael Nadal surely knew the ghosts of 2017 were present. That year in Melbourne, Nadal had a similar advantage over Roger Federer in the final. He was up a break in the fifth set, and he faltered. And in ‘22, he did so again. Daniil Medvedev broke his serve and looked destined to take the match to a final-set tiebreak.
But, of course, that’s not what happened. Just 15 minutes later, at 6–5, Nadal would have the match on his racket again—four more points and he would overtake Novak Djokovic and Federer for the men’s all-time major singles record by winning his second Australian Open—and this time he had no trouble.