Aus Open: Djokovic successfully defends title

World number one Novak Djokovic has successfully defended his Australian Open title and in the process been apart of history following arguably the greatest men’s singles final against tournament second seed Rafael Nadal on Sunday night.

In an epic and gruelling contest which took an extraordinary five hours and 53 minutes to complete Djokovic was crowned champion following a five set 5-7 6-4 6-2 6-7 7-5 victory over world number two Nadal in the 2012 Australian Open Men’s Singles Final out on Rod Laver Arena.

The final was officially the longest singles match at the year’s first grand slam and also the longest grand slam final in the open era surpassing the 1988 US Open Final between Mats Wilander and Ivan Lendl which lasted just under five hours.

It was the Serbian’s fifth grand slam singles title and third down here in Melbourne as the world number one made it three majors on the trot and four out of the last five to continue his remarkable run at the top of male tennis.

For the third consecutive grand slam final and seventh overall Djokovic beat Nadal but unlike the previous two (2011 Wimbledon; 2011 US Open) he was forced to work for every point in what was the longest ever grand slam final.

Djokovic, 24 said that Sunday’s night final, which finished at 1:37am (AEST) on Monday morning was the greatest match he has ever been apart of due to the brutal physical and mental torture both players were forced to endure.

“You are in pain, you are suffering, you are trying to activate your legs, your toes are bleeding, it is outrageous,” an exhausted Djokovic said at his post match media conference.

“But you are still enjoying that pain.”

“To be able to mentally hang in there and physically, it was obvious to everyone watching that we took every last drop of energy we had from our bodies.”

“We put 100 per cent of our abilities and our bodies on the line. Unfortunately there couldn’t be two winners tonight.”

His beaten opponent agreed with the Serbian’s assessment as Nadal, who lost for the seventh consecutive time against Djokovic over the last nine months including now three grand slam finals was disappointed with the outcome but at the same time gracious in defeat.

“When you are fit, when you have passion for the game, you are able to suffer and enjoy suffering,” an equaling tiring Nadal said afterwards.

“Physically it was one of the toughest matches I have played.”

“It was, I think, a very good show and I enjoyed being part of this.”

“I wanted to win, but I am happy with how I did. I had my chances against the best player in the world today.”

The Spaniard aiming for his second Australian Open crown and avenge the last two grand slam finals defeat started the stronger and at one stage held a 4-2 lead in the opening set before the Serbian fought back to break back and level proceedings.

However Nadal regained his composure to take out the tough first set and the second set was also a hard fought battle but this time it was the world number that broke early, held off a gallant challenge by his opponent and served it out to level the match.

Djokovic then kicked it up a gear and played some near unbeatable tennis as he swept aside Nadal to take the third set and looked for all money like wrapping up the final in four sets as he dominated the early stages of the fourth set.

Not for the first time Nadal fought back and that was none more evident when he somehow managed to save three break points in the eighth game of the set trailing 3-4 and 0-40 on his serve.

A short rain delay didn’t manage to halt this magnificent battle as both men held serve to send the set into a tiebreak where Nadal did just enough to send the Australian Open to its first fifth set since the Spaniard beat Roger Federer three years ago.

In what was an unbelievable final set both men threw everything at each-other and it looked as though Nadal would finally be snapping his six-game losing streak against Djokovic as he broke the Serbian and took a 4-2 lead in the fifth.

But like he’s done this entire tournament and in the last 12-15 months Djokovic did not give in and evened up the contest before breaking the Spaniard’s serve in the 11th game of the set and serving one of the greatest ever tennis matches ever seen in Australia out.