Novak Djokovic (photo ©Spekoek) reached the final defeating Paolo Lorenzi, Santiago Giraldo, Nicolas Mahut, Lleyton Hewitt, David Ferrer and Andy Murray. He lost a total of three sets: one to Lleyton Hewitt and two to Andy Murray. After his extraordinary 2011 season, the only doubts about him were due to the fact that he finished last year with pretty serious physical problems so noone knew how well he could prepare for the Australian Open.
Rafael Nadal reached the final defeating Alex Kuznetsov, Tommy Haas, Lucas Lacko, Feliciano Lopez, Tomas Berdych and Roger Federer. He lost a total of two sets, one in each of the last two matches. Someone had already considered him finished because in 2011 he won “only” Roland Garros and a few other tournaments and contributed to the Spain’s victory in Davis Cup. Something similar had happened at the end of 2009 and 2010 was a year full of satisfactions for the Spaniard.
At first the match is close but Novak Djokovic makes some more mistakes, especially with his forehand and in the fifth game Rafael Nadal breaks him. The next game is very close and the Serb has two break points but after about twelve minutes the Spaniard wins his service game. Nadal struggles with his service and the eighth game Djokovic breaks him. The Spaniard steps up and in the eleventh game breaks the Serb again then wins the set in the next game 7-5.
In the second set Rafael Nadal still struggles with his service and in the second game faces two break points but finally wins his service game. However in the fourth game the Serb breaks the Spaniard. Djokovic has a set point in the eighth game but Nadal wins his service game and in the next game faces two more set points but breaks his opponent. The Serb tries again and in the tenth game breaks the Spaniard winning the set 6-4.
In the third set Novak Djokovic Rafael breaks Nadal in the fourth game. The Spaniard suffers the break also mentally so in the sixth game the Serb have a break point and in the eighth game breaks his opponent again to win the set 6-2.
In the fourth Rafael Nadal that he never dies and restarts playing at his level. The first break points are for Novak Djokovic in the eighth game and there are three straight of them but the Spaniard wins his service game. Meanwhile it started raining and there’s a stop of about ten minutes to close the roof. They start playing again and the set is decided at the tie-break, won by Nadal 7-5.
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In the fifth set Rafael Nadal breaks Novak Djokovic in the sixth game but is broken back in the next game. In the eighth game the Serb has a break point but the Spaniard wins his service game. In the eleventh game Djokovic breaks Nadal again and in the next game after nearly six hours he wins the set 7-5 conquering the match and his third title at the Australian Open.
It’s almost impossible to describe in words the incredible level of this final, the longest in the history of the Australian Open. The two protagonists have gone beyond what are supposed to be the limits of physical endurance in humans playing a final that will remain in the Grand Slam legend.
Rafael Nadal can see the glass half-full thinking he reached fourth straight finals in Grand Slam tournaments or he can see it as half empty thinking that in the last three times he was defeated by Novak Djokovic. Unfortunately for him it seems that the Serb has always something more than him but certainly he’ll try to beat him again.
Novak Djokovic once again started the year in an extraordinary way. It will be very hard for him to repeat his incredible 2011, now he won the first Grand Slam tournament of 2012 with an absolutely epic semi-final and a final so it’s hard to bet against him.
