NEW YORK _ Metaphorically, Rafael Nadal's tennis was trying to tell that young whippersnapper Daniil Medvedev: Get off my lawn. In this case, blue hardcourt.
The previous 11 Grand Slam tournament titles had been won by men 30 years old or older, and Nadal, 33, was hoping to keep that kind of order in Sunday's U.S. Open championship match against the 23-year-old Medvedev.
Medvedev did not appear to be listening. Medvedev, who brought a tour-leading 50 match victories to the occasion, did more than just hang around on the old champions' turf.
He pushed Nadal to the limit in a rip-roaring five-setter before Nadal escaped with a 7-5, 6-3, 5-7, 4-6, 6-4. A drop shot to get to a second match point and Nadal finished with a service that Medvedev pushed long, then collapsed on the court.
It was the first five-set men's final since 2013, when Andy Murray defeated Djokovic.
Down two sets to love, Medvedev kept pounding groundstrokes, kept running down whatever Nadal sent back. When Nadal appeared to finally get the crucial service break _ with a lob, followed by a drop shot _ for a 5-2 lead, Medvedev immediately broke back. At 5-3, Nadal, in the fifth, Medvedev saved two match points on his serve.
The switchbacks in control were so constant, and so entertaining to the spectators, that chants of "Let's go, Med!" to help Medvedev through the third set turned to a "Rafa! Rafa! Rafa!" pleading in the fifth.
Not that Nadal had the slightest misperception of where his sport could be going. "The clock is not stopping," he said. "That's part of the cycle of life."
Nadal had been asked repeatedly, during the two-week tournament, about the Big Three _ himself, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer _ and the potential of their continued rule over tennis, having taken 54 of the last 64 Slam trophies. Nadal's charge of that was 18 championships.
"We don't need to hold this era anymore," Nadal said. "We have been here for 15 years. At some point, sooner or later, that this is going to end. Is arriving to the end. I am 33. Novak is 32. Roger is 38."
Already top-ranked Novak Djokovic had gone down in the Open's third round and Federer in the quarterfinals. And, for the first time in 10 years, two players as young as 23 made the men's Open semis _ the Russian Medvedev and Italy's Mateo Berrettini, who finally was sent home by Nadal.
But Medvedev provided Nadal a different challenge, much of it relating to the passage of time. As the clock ticked, Medvedev consistently insisted on extending rallies, a Nadal specialty but one matched over and over again by Medvedev on Sunday. They wound up playing for just under five hours.
In the anticipatory limbo prior to each man's service, the two were easy to distinguish, the muscled Nadal with his constant twitches and the rail thin Medvedev, swimming in baggy clothes, waiting quietly with his arms dangling.
Once the point commenced, though, both put on a rollicking show of athleticism, of movement and anticipation that regularly extended rallies toward 30 strokes.
Then, just for extra flavor, the two would change the tempo drastically, with drop shots and charging volleys. And those were answered by each man setting sail toward the ball, sometimes with five giant strides, and still keeping the point going.
Between them, they went through 11 service breaks.
The production had the full house in Arthur Ashe Stadium rocking, an atmosphere that Nadal has cited for its "big energy" and Medvedev for its "electricity."
Medvedev didn't get off to a good start with the New York crowd at this U.S. Open. During his first three matches he collected a torrent of boos and ran up $19,000 in fines for surly behavior.
By Sunday evening in Arthur Ashe Stadium there were a few chants of "Let's go Med," maybe not necessarily the start of a love affair with New York fans, but certainly a sign of their respect for the way he took Rafael Nadal to five sets in the final. Medvedev was on his best behavior on Sunday night, and on his best game at that.
It was a complete 180 from the fan reaction the first Friday of the tournament when Medvedev was playing against Feliciano Lopez in Armstrong Stadium.His actions there cost him $9,000 in fines for unsportsmanlike conduct when he snatched his towel out of the hands of a ball person and for a visible obscenity when he held up his middle finger by the side of his head in defiance of the crowd.
As Medvedev continued to go to-toe-toe with Nadal on Sunday, the fans continued to warm to the 23-year-old Russian. Moving his 6-6 frame with grace and speed, Medvedev hung in with the dogged Nadal at every point, and the fans started to gravitate to his side. That's not so unusual. Open fans want more and more tennis, and when Nadal had taken the first two sets, they want Medvedev to extend the match.
Nadal is the clear favorite, and there were plenty more chants of "Rafa, Rafa, Rafa," but Medvedev had clearly won over a vocal segment. And when Nadal took quite a while to start play in the fifth set, rearranging his equipment, he was the Grand Slam champion who earned some boos.
But if you are a fan of tennis, maybe Medvedev's biggest win of all was turning around a New York crowd. Sunday night Medvedev wasn't energized by booing but the cheering.
