This past Sunday morning, I did not go to sleep until around 9:00 am. That's extremely late, even by my standards, yet I don't regret it all.
I was too busy watching the greatest tennis match, and one of the best sporting events, I have ever seen.
Novak Djokovic, the top-ranked player in the world, outlasted #2-ranked Rafael Nadal in an epic five-set thriller, winning the 2012 Australian Open after a 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-5 victory that was the longest final in the Open era. The match took nearly 6 hours-- 5 hours and 53 minutes, to be exact-- and was Djokovic's third-straight Grand Slam title, all of which came at Nadal's expense.
Words simply cannot describe what occurred the other night in Melbourne. In the 2008 Wimbledon final, Nadal bested Roger Federer in another epic five-setter, a match that many called the greatest of all time. While Djokovic's victory may have lacked some of the astounding shot-making that the Wimbledon final had, it more than made up for it in sheer determination and willpower.
Make no mistake, though, this was not a sloppy match. This was a fine display of top-notch tennis. Almost every game was tightly contested and full of long rallies. Seemingly every Nadal service game went to deuce. There were amazing shots and even better gets. The defense in this match was incredible.
Djokovic was coming off a five-set victory over #4 Andy Murray while Nadal has dispatched #3 Federer and was looking to exact some revenge on the man who had owned him in 2011. Djokovic was shaky in the first set, missing with his forehand. Nadal came out aggressively, winning a first set that was two minutes shorter than the woman's final from the night before.
Djokovic rebounded to take the second set and cruised through the third (I can't say what happened during the third set because I dozed off and missed it). The Serb looked to have the match in hand at this point. He had finally gotten his game untracked, and it seemed inevitable that he would eventually break Nadal's serve. He had his chance at 4-3, 0-40, but Nadal rallied to hold serve. The match went to a tiebreaker, and you just had this feeling that it would be decided here. Nadal was on the rise, and Djokovic seemed to be faltering just a bit. Djokovic went up 5-3, but Nadal roared back to win the next four points and take the match to a deciding fifth set.
Rafael Nadal presents an interesting dichotomy. He is one of the nicest, most gracious people off the court, but on it, he is a vicious predator. He snarls and glares constantly as he stamps around the baseline. Whenever he wins a big point, he pumps his fist as shouts of "Vamos!" echo throughout the arena. He is a beast in a man's body... actually, judging from how ripped and muscular he is, he might just be a beast.
Nadal is one of the fiercest competitors in all of sports. He is blessed with prodigious talent and is insanely fit, but it is his iron will and refusal to yield a single inch that are his greatest strengths. He simply wears down opponents mentally, browbeating them with his fighting spirit. He won't go away, and as soon as they get just one seed of doubt planted in their mind, it's over. When Nadal senses there is blood in the water, he pounces like a shark.
Even Roger Federer, arguably the greatest player in history, is not immune. Federer dominated men's tennis for years. Nobody could beat him. In final after final, his opponent would have to play lights out with miscues from Federer just to take a set, and even then, it was won in a tiebreaker. They couldn't sustain that level of play against his brilliance. He won all four major tournaments and set the record for most Grand Slam men's singles titles with 16. People lauded him as the Greatest of All Time.
Then a funny thing happened: he couldn't beat Rafael Nadal. At first, it was simply dismissed as Nadal being so dominant on clay. Then Nadal beat Federer on the grass courts of Wimbledon, a surface and event that Federer had owned. Nadal kept on winning, proving that it wasn't just the clay where he was superior. Questions began to arise: how could Federer be the greatest of all time if he wasn't even the greatest player now?
Federer has an elegance that harkens back to the aristocracy of Europe. If this were another time, he surely would have been a nobleman. He plays tennis with an artistry and a flair, rarely showing emotion. His backhand is a picturesque thing of beauty, and his creativity is something to marvel at. Nadal, on the other hand, is a brute, all muscles and physicality. His passion and desire fuel him, and his heavy southpaw shots break down Federer's one-handed backhand. He can run down anything Federer throws at him. Nadal outlasts the Swiss star; he simply wants it more than Federer.
Entering 2011, Nadal seemed poised to break all of Federer's records. He had nine major titles and would add another at the 2011 French Open after defeating Federer in the final. He had beaten Djokovic at the 2010 US Open in four sets to claim the career Grand Slam. He was the unquestioned top player in the world.
Then Novak Djokovic brought that all crashing down.
Djokovic started the year on a tear, winning his first 43 matches. By the time the year was over, he had won three of the four major tournaments and ascended to the #1 ranking. He'd beaten Federer in two semifinals, dispatched Murray to win the Australian Open, and vanquished Nadal at Wimbledon and the US Open. He had one of the best seasons in tennis history, and Nadal even admitted that the Serb was in his head.
Going into the 2012 Australian Open final, Nadal had lost his past six matches to Djokovic, and all came in tournament finals. He was determined to stop the bleeding and show that he could beat Djokovic. As he had time and time again, the Spaniard dug deep into his reserves and clawed his way back. You could just feel the tide rising in Nadal's favor as the fourth set tiebreaker loomed. Djokovic had to seal the deal before the match went to a tiebreak. The Nadal onslaught was coming, and you had to like his chances in a tiebreak.
Lo and behold, the fourth set went to a tiebreak. Nadal jumped out to an early lead, but Djokovic came back and eventually got a mini-break to take a 5-3 lead. Nadal took it right back and then clinched the set when Djokovic pushed a forehand wide.
At that point, the result seemed a foregone conclusion. Nadal had all the momentum. He was fresher, and Djokovic was showing signs of fatigue after being on court for almost ten hours in two days. Nadal was outlasting another opponent yet again. He had seized the upper hand; the finish line was in sight, and he would not be denied.
Djokovic had the look of a man who knew the end was only a matter of time. Sure, he was going to keep fighting. He is a champion after all. It's just that it seemed like he didn't have enough left in the tank. This was not an easy match. Nearly every point was a hard-fought affair. Both players were sprinting back and forth as they ran each other ragged. There are only a few players on tour who can go toe-to-toe with Nadal physically. Djokovic is one of them, but he wasn't coming in 100 percent. That epic semifinal against Murray had taken its toll. It's tough to keep up with an energized Nadal even when you're at your peak. Djokovic was walking slowly between points and definitely did not have the same energy as before. You could see his legs start to give a bit, and the commentators were suggesting that he start conserving energy during Nadal's service games. If he didn't win the first point or two, they suggested that Djokovic concede the game.
Serving 2-3 in the final set, Djokovic finally faltered. Nadal, who had barely touched Djokovic's serve since the first set, broke to go up 4-2. That was the chink in the armor that Nadal needed. He had the match in his grasp, and like a terrier, he was not going to let go. His indomitable will would carry him through. We'd seen it so many times before.
Yet this match would not play out that way. Just as Nadal is the one man who can get the upper hand on Federer, there is one man who can do the same to Nadal. That man is Novak Djokovic.
Affectionately known as the Joker for his sense of humor and comedic impressions of fellow players such as Maria Sharapova, Djokovic is somewhere between the contrasting styles of Federer and Nadal. He plays with the same brutal, single-minded efficiency as Federer but without the artistry and elegance. He does not exude the same raw physicality as Nadal, but if there is one man who can get to a shot that Nadal can't, it's Djokovic. He has a more potent serve than Nadal and a better all-around game, and he is perhaps the best returner in the game since Andre Agassi. As this match revealed, he also has heart, grit, and tenacity to rival that of Nadal.
Djokovic promptly breaks Nadal back to put them back on serve at 4-3. The key play was when Nadal, up 30-15, pushed a backhand wide. It would have been a winner and given him a 40-15 advantage. Instead, it was 30-all. The break rejuvenated Djokovic. You could see the fire return to his eyes, and while you knew Nadal wasn't going to back down, you could tell that Djokovic was going to rise up. It was going to be a titanic clash all the way till the end.
At this point, these two warriors had been on court for over five hours. They'd sprinted almost a combined 30 miles. In the next game, they had an epic 32-ball rally that Nadal finally won. Djokovic collapsed on the court afterwards, gasping heavily. It was a miracle that he could even stand, let alone sprint all over the court like a jackrabbit. Nadal was beginning to feel the effects, too, which is something you never see. While Djokovic was sprawled on the ground, Nadal was doubled over with his hands on his knees. These two were giving it everything they had.
Nobody had ever been able to out-Nadal Nadal until now. The Spaniard is renowned for his mental toughness, yet much like Federer against him, Nadal's confidence gets shaken when it comes to Djokovic. The Serb summoned his own final reserves and willed himself to victory. His legs were rubbery, his fleet bleeding, and he was facing a pumped-up Nadal, yet he persevered and would not yield. He dug deep, tapped into his last remaining reserves, and simply refused to be beaten. That's what Nadal does; people don't do that to him, yet Djokovic did. He broke Nadal again to go up 5-4 and wouldn't surrender the advantage. After saving a break point in the final game, Djokovic hit a sharp serve that Nadal could only put back in play. Djokovic charged the short return and hit a forehand winner to end it. He had defeated Nadal for the seventh-straight time and third-straight major.
Both players could hardly stand during the lengthy trophy presentation. They were both stretching, trying to avoid cramping up, and Nadal eventually sat on the net. Mercifully, someone finally brought them chairs.
What made this match so remarkable was the determination and grit displayed by both players. They would not cede and inch. When Nadal wins the first set, his is practically unbeatable. Djokovic responded by winning the next two sets. Down two sets to one against the man who had owned him for the past year, Nadal did not give up. He fought tooth-and-nail to win the fourth and take it to a deciding fifth set where he had all the momentum and advantages. Djokovic was gassed at this point and could not have been blamed for resigning himself to his fate. Instead, he summoned the strength--God only knows how-- to keep chasing down balls and launch blistering groundstrokes at his opponent.
Every game was tightly-contested. There were countless 20- and 30-shot rallies. For nearly six hours, the two best tennis players in the world blasted away at one another, each doggedly chasing down the other's punishing groundstrokes. When one would make a tremendous shot, the other would answer in kind. Nadal was hitting the ball harder in the fifth and final set than he was in the first. Djokovic somehow found the energy to engage in a 31-shot rally after being on court for nearly 11 hours in two days. He lost that point yet somehow had the fortitude to not let it affect him as he went on to win the game and the match.
It was an incredible display of willpower and high-level tennis. It was truly a match that nobody deserved to lose and was a scintillating way to start the 2012 season. Djokovic now has five career Grand Slam titles and has won four-of-the-last five majors, including the past three. He has beaten Nadal in their past seven matches, all finals. The only major that Djokovic has not won is the French Open, where he lost in the semifinals last year to Federer, snapping his 43-match winning streak. Djokovic has never made it to the finals at the French, and it is a tournament that Nadal dominates. The Spaniard has won six-of-the-past-seven French Opens and is widely considered to be the best player in history on clay. Will Djokovic complete the career Grand Slam and triumph over Nadal in Paris, or will Nadal put and end to the streak and finally beat Djokovic, putting him one title closer to Federer's record? Speaking of Federer, will he show that he is far from finished and win another title, either by overcoming his nemesis on his own turf or defeating the reigning champion of men's tennis?
The answers remain to be seen, but one this is for certain: the French Open can't get here soon enough.
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