Australian Open’s Real Winner is Richard Mille

The current Australian Open has offered plenty of upsets, in particular the shock defeats of Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic to Mischa Zverev (not to be confused with his younger Alexander Zverev) and Denis Istomin respectively. With Federer now having overcome Nishikori and facing the elder Zverev tomorrow, the next exciting game will be Wawrinka against Tsonga, where you can expect a lot of long volleys and exchanges. 

But our eyes were trained over the weekend on Rafael Nadal‘s match against the younger Alexander Zverev, one of the most promising tennis players at the moment. At just 19, he’s already in the ATP Top 20, the youngest since Djokovic over a decade ago. To say tennis runs in his blood is to put it mildly: his dad, mum and brother are all professionals in the field. 

The match was excellent because Nadal and Zverev both gave as much as they got, but more interesting to watch fanatics was the fact that both of them were sporting identical watches on their wrists, in different colours. Zverev was recently signed on as a Richard Mille ambassador, which made this an ambassador-on-ambassador competition and much more thrilling. 

Nadal was sporting the RM27-02 Tourbillon, made with a carbon-quartz case developed almost the same time as the brand was discovering NTPT Carbon and its effectiveness in watchmaking. The baseplate of the movement is made of NTPT carbon. Meanwhile, Zverev was sporting the RM27-01, both of which can handle up to 5,000Gs in shock and stress. 

We can only imagine what it’s like to be 19 and wearing a US$690,000 watch to play tennis against Nadal. But it seems to have spurred him further. Zverev came close to beating Nadal in the third set, but as the game wore on, Nadal’s experience and stamina gave him the upper hand against the younger up-and-comer. We’re looking forward to greater things from the younger Zverev. 

All images: Getty Images