Playing “with the right dimensions”, Rafael Nadal found his best when most needed to meet Felix Auger-Aliassime's Roland Garros challenge

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Rafael Nadal’s 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 win over Felix Auger-Aliassime at Roland Garros on Sunday may or may not go down as the best match of the year. But as far as pure sporting entertainment goes, it will be hard to top, inside or outside of tennis, in 2022.

For four hours and 21 minutes, the 35-year-old Spaniard and the 21-year-old Canadian offered us that most satisfying of storylines: A young upstart challenging an aging all-time great on his home turf, and the all-time great responding by lifting his game to a level that no one has ever been able to match on a clay court. Nadal finished with his 109th victory roar in Paris. Auger-Aliassime finished with a crooked smile of appreciation—for the moment, for his opponent, and hopefully for himself—as he walked to the net to shake Rafa’s hand.

This five-set match played out in five acts, as the two traded the momentum back and forth every 10 games or so

The first act was dominated by Auger-Aliassime. He broke Nadal in the third game of the match and used his serve—especially the wide one in the deuce court—his forehand, his drop shot, and his net game to win the first set. Nadal’s shots, meanwhile, didn’t have their usual oomph or depth. FAA played above-the-net tennis, while Nadal was mired behind the baseline.

“If you are not able to push him back, is very difficult to control him,” Nadal said of Auger-Aliassime, “because he has a huge serve and first shot with his forehand, yeah, is very aggressive.”

The second act began when Auger-Aliassime, perhaps inevitably, fell back to earth. He did it by missing two crucial forehands in the second set. The first came when he had a break point at 1-1; with a good look at a down-the-line forehand winner, he fired the ball just wide, and Nadal went on to hold. FAA’s second crucial miss came when he was serving at 3-4; after saving two break points, he sent another makable putaway forehand wide at game point. It seemed like a small error at the time, but it gave Nadal a second bite at the break, and this time he took it.

The third act, which lasted from 5-3 in the second set to 0-1 in the fourth, was all Nadal. This was “freight-train” time, as commentator Prakash Amritraj called it, that point in the contest where Nadal traditionally rolls over his opponent with dive-bombing forehands to each corner. This was a movie many of us have seen dozens of times at Roland Garros, and it seemed sure to end in a four-set runaway victory for Rafa.

But credit Auger-Aliassime for writing a late twist into that plot. Despite getting steamrolled in the third set, he didn’t show a hint of negativity or agitation. He started the fourth by breaking Nadal in the second game, and then breaking him again in the fourth with a deep forehand return. From that point until the middle of the fifth set, FAA had the upper hand, as he ran Nadal up and back with drop shots. It seemed, as Rafa began to struggle to reach those drops, that age might catch finally up to Nadal in Paris, and youth might triumph.

We should have known better. Instead of grinding Rafa down physically, Auger-Aliassime ended up inspiring him to raise his level to its peak. The last two games were the final act of the match, and a fitting pinnacle.

With FAA serving at 3-4, Nadal started by hitting a big forehand and finishing the point with a smash for 0-15. He hit another big forehand approach for 0-30, put a short-hop forehand pass on the baseline for 15-40, and broke serve with a running backhand pass.

Serving for the match at 5-3, Nadal hit a second-serve winner down the T that fooled Auger-Aliassime; hit a forehand volley winner for 30-15; a down-the-line forehand winner for 40-15; and a crosscourt forehand winner for the victory.

“He raised his level when he needed to,” Auger-Aliassime said. “I think he took it even higher, one step further, from 4-3. Honestly, I didn’t play a bad game. I did what I had to do. He was dictating, aggressive when he needed to, and also defending really well.”

“When I played well, I won the match,” Nadal said. “When I played not that well, I had a lot of troubles, no? Most important thing that I played again a good fifth set, and especially the last three, four games with the right dimensions, so very happy for that.”

Playing “with the right dimensions” is a bit of an understatement, as far as a description of what Rafa did in the last two games today. But he has been here before, and he knows he’ll have an even greater challenge in two days, in his quarterfinal against Novak Djokovic. Whatever happens then, this was a two-man performance to remember, and one that had a fitting dramatic arc. The best found his best, when he needed it most.