Rafael Nadal posts throwback win in five-set battle against teen

MELBOURNE — Rafael Nadal, the Spanish conquistador of tennis, has made a career of wearing down opponents, and although the past few years haven’t seen his best, on Saturday he delivered a stunning throwback performance.

The former No. 1, now 30 years old and, once again, on the comeback trail, was facing the future of the game in 19-year-old Alexander Zverev of Germany. The 24th-seeded Zverev, tall and lanky, and in possession of a mega-serve, is willing to take risks. One day that talent will likely make him a champion, but for now it was the 14-time Grand Slam champion who was the more domineering.

Besides for a tentative first set where he was visibly nervous and hitting balls too short, it was vintage Nadal out there — the warrior with instinctive survival skills as he claimed a 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2 third-round win over the teen. Even when Nadal lost the third set to Zverev’s power serve, he understood he was the better player on the court.

“In my opinion, I was playing better than him in the third,” Nadal said. “It was a tough set for me, but mentally I have been very positive the whole match. In terms of physical performance, I felt great, ready to run for every ball.”

They battled for 4 hours, and 6 minutes to the delight of the crowd, who quickly gave the two a standing ovation at the end. It was after eight at night and this was still the afternoon session, but no one left Rod Laver Arena. They stayed — lived and died — every point with the battlers in front of them.

Serena Williams once challenged men's player at Australian Open

Venus Williams takes high road while addressing ESPN commentator

“I want to say many, many thanks to you here in Melbourne,” said the ninth-seeded Nadal, who won his lone Australian Open title amongst his 14 Grand Slam titles in 2009. “That was a  special day for me. Thanks for coming out.”

Fans haven’t seen this Nadal in quite awhile, the guy who would lay down and bleed to win a big-time five-set thriller. It’s not that he didn’t want to be his old self, he couldn’t find a way there. Nadal was constantly struggling to overcome assorted injuries, and even when he claimed to be in playing condition, mentally he was clearly short on conviction.

“For the confidence, for lot of things, it’s very important to win these kind of matches,” Nadal said. “I worked a lot during all December to have the chances to compete well these kind of moments. Even if I started the match with some nerves, I think I was able to come back well.”

There were so many ups-and-downs in the 322-point match that it would take forever to pinpoint the many times it appeared the crucial moment had arrived, only to find out it wasn’t really key to the outcome at all.

The marathon turned in Nadal’s favor in the fifth game of the final set. Nadal had already squandered a 2-0 lead in the fifth set, but finally could feel the finish line close. The victory would present an 18th career five-set win in 26 five-set matches played to the Spaniard.

Zverev, who already saved two break points in that fifth game, won a 37-shot point to go to ad-in,  but started to cramp. From that point on, the match belonged to Nadal, although it’s worth noting Zverev admirably battled the cramps and seemed to recover in the last couple of games.

“Even now I’m disappointed, but I know that this was a great match,” Zverev said. “That was a great fight. There’s a lot of positives in this match.”

When Nadal is playing at his potent best he makes an opponent work physically hard — too physically hard for the still inexperienced Zverev on the day. His body, still lacking in some built-up muscle mass, isn’t quite strong enough yet to bear the brunt of an in-form Nadal onslaught.

Now the question surrounding Nadal is whether he can rebound from this heavyweight encounter to see his way through the next match against sixth seed Gael Monfils of France, who captured a 6-3, 7-6 (1), 6-4 third round win over 32nd seed Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany. Nadal holds an impressive 12-2 winning record over Monfils.

One of Nadal’s most notable problems the past couple of years  has been uneven results. Stringing together consistently high-level performances no longer came as routine. But he’s sounding more positive with each day at Melbourne Park.

“It’s going to be a big, big match,” Nadal said.  "I need to play my best.”