The final of the first Grand Slam of the year was set between the crowd-favourite and the top-seed, Rafael Nadal and the eighth seed, Stanislas Wawrinka.
The match started with blistering pace amidst the Australian twilight and a packed Rod Laver Arena. Both the players started the match strongly with the Swiss serving the first game. The match came alight in the fourth game of the set when Wawrinka break Nadal’s serve to take an early 3-1 lead. He then saved three break points to ultimately serve out the set for a 6-3 score.
The crowd was in for more shocking events when the 8th seed broke Nadal in the first game of the second set. He then held his serve to take an early lead of 2-0 over the Spaniard. While playing a shot from the baseline, Nadal let out in pain in the next game. He held his serve but quickly went away for a medical time-out, while Wawrinka argued with the ref for complete disclosure of the injury. Nadal came out after six minutes but only for his fans to see his performance drop. The Spaniard lost the second set 6-2.
However, Nadal was not going out without a fight. He broke the Swiss’s serve in the second game of the match to win the third set 6-3.
The top seed started the fourth set much strongly. While Nadal’s fans were praying for a comeback, the Swiss broke the Spaniard’s serve in the sixth game of the set to take a 4-2 lead. After that, it was all Wawrinka as he held his nerves to go on to win the Australian Open 2014.
He was the first man since 1993 to beat the world no.1 & 2 in a Grand Slam and also, the first man ever to beat Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal in a Grand Slam.
Image Credit: Official Australian Open Facebook Page
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