Five hours, 53 minutes of championship tennis. In the end, it was the world's #1 who emerged again, as Novak Djokovic outlasted #2 Rafael Nadal 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-5 in the Australian Open Final to win his fifth career Grand Slam, and third in a row.
Djokovic, coming off a season in which he won three Grand Slams, including beating Nadal in both the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals, had hoped for a quicker match, after needing nearly five hours to defeat #4 ranked Andy Murray in the semifinals.
What he and the world got instead was a tennis match with sensational shot after sensational shot. After Nadal won the first set 7-5, Djokovic rallied to win the next two sets 6-4, 6-2 and was up 5-4 in the fourth set before Nadal rallied to win in the tiebreak to force a fifth set. In the fifth, Djokovic finally broke Nadal to go up 6-5, and put a forehand winner away at 1:37 A.M. local time to win his third Australian Open title.
"We made history tonight and unfortunately there couldn't be two winners," Djokovic said.
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