Australian Open - Roger Federer won after an enormous five-set match against Rafael Nadal and won his 18th Grand Slam!

Australian Open - Roger Federer won after an enormous five-set match against Rafael Nadal and won his 18th Grand Slam!

Roger Federer managed his bet. After six months away from the field, Switzerland came back to win against its best opponent in the Australian Open final. This is his fifth title, here in Melbourne and the 18th of his career.

The match: Federer and Nadal still offered us a monument of tennis

He did it ! Roger Federer wins his 18th Grand Slam title, nearly five years after raising his last trophy in a Major. It was in his Wimbledon garden in 2012. When they were announced finished and unable to fight for a big title, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal showed that they would still have to rely on them. At the end of a sumptuous match of more than 3h30, Federer won his third game in five sets in the same tournament. A first for him that intervenes at best times.

Switzerland took the best start taking advantage of the only break opportunity of the first set to 3-3 to take the service of Nadal and flies towards the winning of the first race relying on a very good quality of service. But Nadal is not Nadal for nothing. The Spaniard accelerated at the start of the second set leading quickly 4-0. Without trembling, he came back for the first time at a height thanks to a last game of white service.

The turn of the match probably took place in the first game of the third set. After losing the second run, Federer leads 40-0 on his service but eventually finds himself having to save three break points. Three surgical aces in the same place allow him to take control and then fly 6-1. Again, Nadal does not let go and a break early in the round gives him the right to dispute a fifth and last unbreathable set.

The level of play becomes more and more exceptional, game after game, point by point. With a break of entry, Nadal takes the best start to lead 3-1. But after six balls of debreak missed since the beginning of the set, Federer manages to return to height to the score on a fault in forehand of Majorcan. A new break two games later, two 5-4 balls saved on the next game and one last forehand winner on the line. Roger Federer is happy as a kid and triumphs a fifth time in Australia, seven years after his last title.

The key to the match: Federer's setback

If Federer had lost his last six Grand Slam matches against Nadal, it was because he could not hold the exchange in the diagonal between the Majorquin's forehand and his backhand. Today, it is thanks to this blow that he bent the Spaniard. Refusing to retreat from its bottom line of court, the Swiss did not cease to attack Nadal with its reverse. Whether in the diagonal or along the line. Gone are the wooden lapels, the (very) many winning laps. A tactical change that prevented Nadal from finding himself in his comfort zone finding himself in trouble on his forehand side when he used to distribute the game with his heavy strikes.

Source: Twitter Roger Federer