Nadal has a lot of motivation at the Australian Open. How can he leapfrog Djokovic and Federer?

Rafael Nadal has a great opportunity to take the lead. Not the world ranking, but the duel of the “big three”. He could become the first of the three greats to win 21 Grand Slam titles.

He doesn’t want to let this opportunity lie. Nadal has a great chance to get ahead of Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer. All three of them have 20 Grand Slam titles and in the final years of their careers the battle rages to see who will have the most.

With Federer not starting at the Australian Open due to injury and Djokovic due to vaccinations, Nadal could be in the lead in this battle. However, he will have some tough competition, as Daniil Medvedev and Alexander Zverev can reach the top of the world rankings, so their motivation is also high.

Nadal has returned to Grand Slam action after almost three quarters of a year. He missed Wimbledon and the US Open due to an injury to his left leg, but now at 35 years and 241 days he is back in full form.

In the first round, he had no problem with the 66th player in the ATP rankings, Marcos Giron, whom he defeated 6-1, 6-4 and 6-2. So he had more trouble with the umpire than with his opponent. Fergus Murphy admonished Nadal several times for stalling on serve, the Spanish tennis player countered with the absence of servers to bring him a towel in the hot weather.

In his career, however, Nadal has dominated the Australian Open only once, in 2009. Overall, the Mallorca native has 292 Grand Slam victories, 70 of them at the Australian Open.

Nadal will face Yannick Hanfmann in the next round on Wednesday. The 100th-ranked player knocked out Thanasi Kokkinakis 6-2, 6-3 and 6-2.

Source: Marca, Australian Open