How Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev will win the Australian Open

It always starts with a tug of the shorts. Usually followed by a couple of shirt pulls, to the left and the right. A tuck of the hair to the left, a touch to the nose, a tuck of the hair to the right, and a touch of the nose.

Bouncing the ball the whole time.

The service routine of Rafael Nadal is one of the most indelible marks of modern sport, a fingerprint on a game known to most. It's shifted and altered through his career, modest at first before evolving into its current form — much like the player himself. Regardless of its exact form, it's undeniably Nadal, unmistakable for any other player. Tennis fans have seen this dance roughly 60,000 times over the years, give or take a few lets.

To see Nadal in silhouette signifies his brilliance and his dominance. Nadal has dominated the ranks of men's professional tennis for the best part of two decades, alongside Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic. Their stranglehold on the top of the game is historic and in defiance of Father Time.

For the last half-decade, fans and pundits alike have been writing about the decline of Nadal. Yet, as we sit here awaiting the 2022 Australian Open final, Nadal is one of two players left standing. Despite inflicting almost inhumane forces on his body, Nadal is the last one left, the only one of men's tennis's 'Big Three' to be present at the Australian Open.

For several generations of young players, a «new guard» has promised to challenge the supremacy of the older crop.

The other finalist is perhaps the best player of this crop, a multidisciplinary tennis beast that happens to possess almost the perfect frame for the modern game. Daniil Medvedev doesn't always make a lot of fans when he plays, but he does win a lot. It's hard to argue with how much