Djokovic Claims 2012 Australian Open Title After Six-Hour Win

World number one-ranked Novak Djokovic of Serbia defeated Spain’s Rafael Nadal in the longest Grand Slam singles final in the history of professional tennis, winning 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-5 after 5-hours and 53-min. to claim his third Australian Open title. At 1:37 a.m. Monday local time in Melbourne and 9:37 a.m. ET, Djokovic became the fifth man since the Open Era began in 1968 to win three straight Grand Slam finals. This final surpassed the previous longest major singles final by just under a hour (Mats Wilander’s win over Ivan Lendl at the U.S. Open in 1988, which lasted 4 hours, 54 min.)

This was one of the most dramatic finals in the history of the game. The level of play was outstanding throughout and the efforts seemed superhuman. During the trophy presentation, the players were so exhausted that they were given chairs and a bottle of water while the speeches were made and trophies were presented. As usual, both players were very gracious both in victory and in defeat.

"We made history tonight and unfortunately there couldn’t be two winners," Djokovic said.

While Djokovic’s comment is one that certainly has merit, it didn’t change the fact that Djokovic’s win now gives him seven straight finals wins against the world number two-ranked Nadal. This includes defeating Nadal in three straight majors. In Nadal’s post-match speech he said, "Good morning, everybody, Congratulations to Novak and his team. They deserve it. They are doing something fantastic, so congratulations."

The level of play somehow seemed to improve in the fifth set as the match went into its fifth hour. The point of the match was at 4-4 in the fifth when Djokovic hit a backhand long after a 31-shot rally the longest of the match and then collapsed to the court in exhaustion.

Nadal had only lost one match of his previous 134 in Grand Slams after winning the first set, but he found his serve coming under more and more pressure as the match wore on. After coming back from 5-3 down to win the fourth-set tie-breaker, Nadal was up a break at 4-2 in the fifth set against Djokovic. Djokovic, who was coming off a near five hours semifinal win against Andy Murray, somehow responded. He broke for a 6-5 lead and saved a break point before finally taking the win and championship.