The long awaited match of the Australian Open finally arrived fulfilling the expectations of the tennis fans all over
the world. The ‘World number 2’ and the ‘World number 1’ were in the final. A match that had to decide the champion. More importantly a chance for Federer to prove that he could fight back the raging “Spanish Bull” who seemed the greatest hurdle towards his 14th Grand Slam title.
The match was very important for both players keeping in mind that
Rafael Nadal had the opportunity to win his first ever hard-court Grand Slam and become the first Spaniard to do so. While on the other hand
Roger Federer was eying his 14th Grand Slam title to equal Pete Sampras’s record and also to retain his ATP ranking as ‘World number 1’. The match was expected to be a tough nut to crack for Federer as his stats against Nadal were not good.
The Spanish Bull had faced no problems till the semi-finals. He came along quite comfortably dominating his opponents in straight sets. But the semi-final against Fernando Verdasco proved to be test for Nadal. But the in-form “Rafa” finally defeated him in a nail-biting five-setter. It took him five hours and fifteen minutes to qualify for the final for the first time here in Australian Open. That match became the longest match played at the Australian Open. However, Federer had not seemed as convincing as Nadal and was nearly defeated in the fourth round by Berdych in which he came back in the last three sets. Maybe that puffed some confidence back in him and he outclassed his opponents in the next matches in straight sets.
The match as scheduled on Sunday commenced nearly 15 minutes to 8 according to Australian time. The battle started in the first game as Nadal broke Federer after he won the toss and elected to receive the serve first. It was a great pleasure to watch the two players exhibiting their fabulous game of power and extraordinary skill. The second game was broken back by Federer and the games continued in the first set without any further breaks until Nadal outplayed Federer by breaking his serve and earned a chance to serve and win the first set “7-5” and it happened so.
The second set began and now it seemed that Nadal was not going to let Federer win his 14th Grand Slam. But the Rod Lavor Arena got buzzing all over as Federer came back in the second set showing great nerves, skill and determination. The games continued without any break when Federer broke Nadal’s serve and served 3-2 in the second set. Federer won his own serve and later breaking Nadal’s once again took the second set “6-3”.
Now as both had one set a piece the third was going to be a very important set. The one who would loose the third set would come under immense pressure. Eventually after some intense rallies Nadal again stamped the third set to his name winning it “7-6” on a tie-breaker. Nadal won it 7-3.
It was a do or die situation for Federer this time that was either to win the set or to loose the match. So the fourth set started with the same tense atmosphere. Nadal was trying his level best to win the match in four sets but it was for Federer who wanted to stay in the match by winning the set in which he succeeded by “6-3”.
Now four sets were over and it seemed as if it would be Nadal with the trophy as his 5-set match statistics were quite better than Federer’s. As the fifth set started it showed as if Federer was a little tired while Nadal on the other hand was as energetic as ever even after the 5 hours long match against Verdasco in the semi-final. The fifth set began and after the set score “1-1” Nadal broke Federer’s serve and won his own to lead “4-1” in the fifth set. Federer kept on fighting for winning his own served games and eventually the set reached the score “5-2”. Now Federer was serving to stay in the final but that game was won by Nadal and he became the first ever Spaniard to win the Australian Open. The victory came as a result of Federer’s forehand falling long outside the baseline and Nadal reacted by throwing himself on the court. The crowd stood and started applauding for the champion and also for the great final that had been a treat to watch. As the ceremony began and Federer was called on stage to receive the runners-up shield and to say a few words he started crying and was unable to speak for a while. Later after settling a bit he admired the champion that he deserved the trophy and thanked the crowd for the support. At the end came the champions turn who received his trophy and commented on Federer as a great all-time champion in the history of tennis and thanked the crowd and authorities for requesting Rod Lavor to give the trophy to him as that was his dream.