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Is Nadal-Medvedev one of the greatest modern day slam final rivalries, outside of big 4 ?

By Myre Aberdan

NNEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 08: Rafael Nadal of Spain celebrates a point during the fifth set of his Men's Singles final match against Daniil Medvedev of Russia on day fourteen of the 2019 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 08, 2019 in the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)
NNEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 08: Rafael Nadal of Spain celebrates a point during the fifth set of his Men's Singles final match against Daniil Medvedev of Russia on day fourteen of the 2019 US Open at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 08, 2019 in the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images) /
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Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev have met in two grand slam finals at different majors, and each match has been nothing short of enthralling, and a two-sided affair.

In comparison, the Djokovic-Medvedev matches have been either all one way traffic from Djokovic, or from Medvedev. We were not exactly treated to an epic in Melbourne or New York

However, both grand slam finals played between Nadal and Medvedev have gone to 5 sets. Their first grand slam final, the 2019 US Open final, lasted 4 hours and 50 minutes.

Their second grand major final? A whopping 5 hours and 24 minutes. Both matches are firmly in the top 4 as the longest grand slam finals in history.

If we compared this matchup to some of the other rivalries, many fall short as they occur on just 1 surface. For instance, Nadal- Thiem has occurred just on clay at the French Open. In those 4 years, besides Medvedev, no other younger players have featured in more than 1 grand slam final.

On hard courts, Medvedev has featured in half of the hard court grand slam finals which have been available over the past 2 seasons.

With the upcoming North American hard court swing right around the corner, we will see a repeat of 2019? That year Nadal and Medvedev respectively played in their last major warmup tournament before the US Open, playing in Montreal, with Nadal winning that title.

Weeks later, on both the men’s and women’s side, we witnessed a repeat matchup in the US Open final. It is quite intriguing, because every major final between Nadal and Medvedev has finished as an all-time classic. The 2019 US Open final was one of the longest and most enjoyable US Open finals in recent memory. The final was a far cry from the straight set matches which occurred in 2017 and 2018. The 2020 final was also unfortunately a let-down for most fans, as the level was just not there.

With the US Open the next major around the corner, we will see chapter 3 in the Nadal v Medvedev rivalry?

If so, is the Nadal-Medvedev rivalry one of the most entertaining and edge-of-your-seat modern day rivalries?

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