A torturous game- Nole prevailed

Rafael Nadal entered the court along with the defending champion Novak Djokovic at Rod Laver Arena by 7.30 pm Australian time. When I watched Djokovic serving first, it was almost 2.15 pm india time. Nole had a relatively difficult game to hold when compared to Nadal who held his first serve pretty easily without Nole earning a single point. When Nole served for the third time in the first set, his service  broke. Nole threw his racquet away. Nadal lead the first set 4-2 in the wink of an eye with break up. Frustration was evident on the man who sat on Rafa’s head through out the year of 2011. Being a Nole’s supporter, I surrendered so meekly that I declared Nadal as the new Australian open Champion because I was damn sure if Nadal became a fore runner in any best of five setters he would be unbeatable.

But soon to my surprise, I saw Nole breaking back Nadal but was not completely out of danger even then. Though Nole lead  5-4, Rafa, the fighter he was, won the next three games and Nole, eventually, lost the first set 5-7. By the end of the first set which had slugfest of rallies, it was almost 3.30 pm India time which meant it took 1 hour and 20 minutes for it to complete. Nadal, when he was fit, I was sure, could go upto playing 10 sets without getting tired. But I always had doubts about the stamina of Djocker particularly because a day before he had to endure a 4 hour 50 minutes semi final against Andy Murray which was really physical to say the least. I could not see Nole getting defeated anymore and I was having my fingers crossed. I wanted Nole to break Rafa desperately. Soon it happened. Nadal serve was broken quite early in the second set and luckily Nole was able to consolidate his break by holding on to his serve and he lead 4-1 in the set. Infact, I felt if this set was finished rapidly then there was a semblance of chance for Nole to come back into the game. If this set, on the other hand, took as longer as the first set, regardless of the fact whether Nole won it or not, he would find it hard to win two more sets.

As expected, Rafa broke Nole and it was almost Evens Stevens in the second set. Then finally Rafa’s serve came under the gun one more time and this time he double faulted and Nole fetched the second set 6-4.  Since I had a small breathing space.  I heaved a sigh of relief . Then the third set begun. Now I was pretty sure since the second set finished relatively quickly if Nole had to win the third set, then it would be all over for Rafa. With this hope, I was seeing the third set with much zeal and as I wanted Nole got the third set with much ease. Then the pressure was fully on Rafa. He needed to win the next two sets to win the title. But there was always a saying  that proclaims“when going gets tough the tough gets going “. Simply this was what happened. None of these two fellows were able to break each other’s serve ín the fourth set. Nole had a lone chance where he was leading 0-40 with nadal on serve. The score at that time was 4-4. If Nole had to break Rafa’s serve by then, the former would have served for the championship the very next game. But five straight points with three beautiful serves bailed Rafa out and he got the game.

Then came a break in the midst of this most exasperating match due to rain. The roof was brought in and in another fifteen minutes the stadium was closed. The fourth set continued with neither one of them opting to warm up and it went to a tie breaker. Nole again had the advantage in the early going of the tie breaker by leading 5-3 with just two points away from the championship. I was praying literally for a Nole’s victory in the fourth set itself because the greater the duration of the match, the greater it was going to favour Rafa. But to my dismay, once again Rafa came back and won the next four points before sealing the set 6-7 (5-7).

Then the game once again began fresh with Nadal serving first. As always, serving first in the final set would be an added advantage and Rafa had it. When Nadal broke Nole in the sixth game of the final set the score read 4-2 favouring the former. Nole had to compulsorily break Rafa’s serve by then and if not the lead further would go to 5-2 and precisely what happened when the resilience or tenacity whatever you want to call came to the rescue of Nole. He broke Rafa back and in the eleventh game of the set he broke Rafa one more time. This time the score was 6-5 in favour of Nole with him on serve. Nole in the first point slugfest against Nadal emerged as the winner and with his next unreturnable serve he went on to a 30-0 lead. But Rafa won back the next three points with relative ease and had a break point againt  Nole. If that game was broken I was absolutely sure Rafa was going to win the championship as every opportunity which Nole squandered would kill the momentum of the latter.

Then Nole was able to deuce the next point and somehow was able to force the error from Rafa which meant the advantage and the championship point for the very first time came to Djocker. The next was a terrific serve which landed right down the middle and then the return was just so easy to be pounded for an inside out winner from Nole and then he fell flat in the ground backwards with the utmost relief which he had in the six hour long tennis.

Thus ended the most entertaining and torturous battle which I had ever seen in a grandslam final. The final took 5 hours and 53 minutes totally and the second best player in the world lifted the cup for the second consequtive win downunder.

All hail king Djocker.