The Greatest Tennis Match Ever Played

Five hours and 53 minutes. In a clash of the ages, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal met in their 3rd consecutive Grand Slam Final at the Australian Open. The final score says it all: 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5. While not the longest tennis match ever played, it was the longest Final match ever played in the Open era and the longest match ever played in the history of the Australian Open.


After the match, the two competitors were so tired that they needed chairs to sit on during the post-game ceremony, barely able to breathe and sweating profusely.


Rafael Nadal crawled his way back into the match in the 4th set and gave Djokovic a run for his money in the 5th set, but "Djoker" was able to finish off Nadal without the need of a tie-breaker. Although this was Nadal's 3rd consecutive defeat to Djokovic, he showed that he could at least be competitive and that he is not out of the running for winning a Grand Slam this year.


This is Djokovic's 3rd Australian Open championship and 5th Grand Slam overall, putting away a lot of doubt as to his #1 ranking over old favorites Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.