The 35-year-old has surprised Australian Open watchers even more than himself as he has fought for his shot at a 21st slam
Rafael Nadal lays down his towel, spreads it across two parallel courtside advertising boards. He gently tugs at the near corners to ensure it is taut. Then looks at it again, pulls the far right-hand corner just a little. He squinches his face and surveys the symmetry, pats it with his hand. Content, he turns on his heels towards the baseline, ready for his serving ritual.
In the quarter-finals against Denis Shapovalov, Nadal completed his shirt-tug, hair-tuck, face-wipe routine 146 times. He won 100 of those points on his first serve over the course of five sets, in four hours and eight minutes. He lost 4kg in sweat under the sun.
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