In the 37 bygone games, Nadal had saved just one-break point — in the second set, which he eventually lost. Until then, Djokovic had converted four out of seven. All through the match thus far, Nadal was rooted five metres behind the baseline, giving Djokovic that extra split second to get into a great off-the-ball position. Although he hustled his way to the first set 7-5, Djokovic found his rhthym and space early in the second to grab the next two 6-4, 6-2. Now, with three break points at 3-4, the Norman Brookes trophy glistened in the background. With one Serbian arm wrapped around it.

Rain break

The rain came down heavily, as did Nadal’s groundstrokes. Making the white paint his home, Nadal drew great butterflies on court. With four thundering kick-serves and exquisite baseline rallies, Nadal left Djokovic a mere spectator to make it 4-4. As two great white roofs met in the middle to shut the shower above, Nadal pumped his fists as he bridged the gap with Djokovic below. It would be the moment that changed the clash from an ordinary match to the longest final in the history of Grand Slam tennis.

By the time the final ended in the wee hours of Monday morning in Melbourne, the earth had revolved a quarter way around its axis. For five hours and 53 minutes, to be precise, Nadal and Djokovic enthralled the 22,000 spectators fortunate enough to have tickets, who bore witness to the most epic of struggles on a tennis court.

After the Spaniard won the fourth set following a championship point save in the tie-break, the match reached a place no Nadal-Djokovic meeting had ever gone before in 29 previous occasions - a fifth set. It was the grandest stage of them all, and the players had raised their levels to a new dimension of physicality. Djokovic, however, had that one extra stroke in him. And that made all the difference.

New rivalry

At 1:37 am on the third Monday of this Australian Open, the Serbian planted one of the few running down-the-line forehand winners that Nadal’s legs couldn’t hunt down in the final set. As he tore his drenched tee-shirt of his body and fell to the ground in a heap of personified exhaustion, the point gave him the final set 7-5 and his third Australian Open title. It was his third Slam in succession, and fifth since the day he was born. But as some would say, this was the day that gave birth to the new great rivalry of our times.

“Every year, the level of tennis keeps getting better. This year I try to keep up,” said a visibly shaking Nadal at the presentation ceremony. Like his game in the first set, Nadal’s statement at the end of the day had more sense than flair. But it got the point across. In 2011, he lost six straight matches, including the Wimbledon and US Open finals, to Djokovic. Over the last fortnight, he had more than just caught up. As Djokovic later said, that man had caught up.

“Unfortunately, we can’t share the trophy,” said Djokovic, looking over at Nadal on the dais. “But Rafa, you and me have been part of something extraordinary today. And we will have many more of these this year.”