British Tennis - Lawn Tennis Association

Djokovic triumphs over Nadal in extraordinary final

World No.1 Novak Djokovic successfully defended his Australian Open crown with an electrifying 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-5 victory over 2009 Champion Rafael Nadal.

In the 100th Men’s singles championship in Australia, the World’s two best players created history as their amazing five hours and fifty three minutes epic duel became not only the longest ever match at the Australian Open but also the longest ever Grand Slam singles final.

Meeting in their third consecutive major final (the first players to do this) and for the 30th time overall, Djokovic and Nadal thrilled the capacity crowd on the Rod Laver Arena until 1.35am in a match full of shifts in momentum and dazzling tennis.

Aiming to lift his 11th Grand Slam title; Nadal struck first and led 4-2 in the opening set. Djokovic broke back but lost serve again in the eleventh game and the Spaniard sealed the opener.

The Serb responded with a break in the fourth game of the second set and led 5-2 only to see Nadal battle back to within a point of 5-5. However, the World No.2 double faulted on Djokovic’s fourth set point and the Serb was level.

The top seed raised his level with a superb performance to take the third set and had the momentum in the fourth with three break points to lead 5-3. Courageously Nadal held on and after a rain delay, causing the closing of the roof, the Spaniard levelled the match by winning four consecutive points from 3-5 to take the tie-break.

The second seed broke in the sixth game of the decider and had chances to lead 5-2 but crucially missed a backhand passing shot that would have given him 40-15. Djokovic capitalised to break back and struck again on the Spaniard’s serve at 5-5 to serve for the match.

Nadal created one last break point only to see the World No.1 save it with a crosscourt backhand. On his first championship point Djokovic struck an inside out forehand winner to seal a magnificent victory and end one of the most thrilling tennis matches ever seen.

Stat Attack – Djokovic

• The Serb is the fifth man ever to win three consecutive Grand Slam titles after Rod Laver, Pete Sampras, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal

• With five major singles titles Djokovic is now level with Tony Trabert and Frank Sedgman at joint ninth on the all-time list

• The Serb has now won the last seven meetings with Nadal closing the gap in their head-to-head series to 14-16

• Djokovic is the first man in the Open era to win both the semi-final and final of a Grand Slam 7-5 in the fifth set

Stat Attack – Nadal

• Nadal has now reached the final of each Grand Slam at least twice – only Ken Rosewall, Ivan Lendl, Andre Agassi and Roger Federer have achieved this

• The Spaniard now has a 10-5 record in Grand Slam finals and was aiming to become second youngest man (after Bjorn Borg) to win 11 titles

• The 25 year-old is the first man in the Open era to be runner-up at three consecutive Grand Slams

Impressive Azarenka seals first Grand Slam

Victoria Azarenka produced a stunning display of power tennis to comprehensively defeat former Champion Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-0 and win her first Grand Slam title in style in Melbourne.

With the victory the 22 year-old Belarusian moves to the top of the WTA rankings for the first time in her career. It was the first major final since Serena Williams played Dinara Safina in Melbourne three years ago where the winner would take the No.1 ranking.

In her first Grand Slam final the third seed lost serve in the opening game as Sharapova opened an early 2-0 lead and threatened to make it 3-0. Crucially Azarenka held serve from 0-30 and broke the Russian in the next game.

From 3-3 the third seed comfortably tore through the next nine games, dominating the more experienced Russian with exceptional play from the baseline. Azarenka completed the biggest victory of her career after 82 minutes when Sharapova netted a backhand, her 30th unforced error of the match.

Stat Attack – Azarenka

• 2005 Junior Champion Azarenka is the third woman after Evonne Goolagong and Chris O’Neil to lift both junior and senior singles titles in Melbourne

• Azarenka is the 41st woman to lift a Grand Slam in the Open Era and 21st woman to become World No.1

• The last player to win their first major title with such a dominant score line was Anastasia Myskina who beat Elena Dementieva 6-1, 6-2 at the 2004 French Open

• The 22 year-old is the first woman to reach the No.1 ranking without having ever been ranked No.2

Stat Attack – Sharapova

• The Russian now has a 3-3 record in Grand Slam singles finals

• She was aiming to become the 11th woman in the Open era to win multiple Australian Open titles after Margaret Court, Evonne Goolagong, Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Hana Mandlikova, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Jennifer Capriati and Serena Williams

• The 24 year-old has won at least one singles title for the last nine years dating back to 2003

Bryan’s dethroned in Men’s Doubles final

The unseeded team of Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek caused a major surprise in the final of the Men’s doubles by beating reigning Champions Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6(1), 6-2.

The Indian/Czech pairing were playing only their fourth event together and became the only team to defeat the top three seeds in the same tournament. Victory completes the career Grand Slam for 38 year-old Paes who has previously lost three finals in Melbourne.

Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva became the first all-Russian pairing to lift a Grand Slam title when they overcame Italian Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 to win the Women’s doubles title. They had upset defending champions Flavia Penentta and Gisela Dulko in the third round.

In the Mixed Doubles there was a victory for 8th seeds Horia Tecau and Bethanie Mattek-Sands who won their first major title with a 6-3, 5-7, (10-3) win over 5th seeds Leander Paes and Elena Vesnina.