In perhaps the greatest and certainly least likely triumph of his career, 35-year old Roger Federer defeated his nemesis Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final, claiming his 18th grand slam title and all but altering the space-time continuum in a five-set classic at Rod Laver Arena.
With this breathtaking win – claimed 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 in three hours and 37 minutes – Federer becomes the first man to claim five titles at three different grand slam events and also the second-oldest man behind Ken Rosewall to claim a major singles trophy. Only the appearance of a wooden racket could have made it more surreal.
The fifth set was full of agonising drama, and Federer weathered two break points to serve it out, but his ethereal grace could not be denied. Coming as it does a full five years after his 17th crown, the sight of the Swiss maestro’s tearful celebration was as pleasingly familiar as it was utterly astonishing. In future years he’ll surely look back on this ninth grand slam final meeting with his most fearsome opponent and wonder if it really happened.
The question mark on Nadal before this encounter was whether, on a day’s less rest than Federer – no cinch with so many miles in his legs already – he could recover well enough from his five-set semi final epic against Grigor Dimitrov. In the end it was Federer whose body nearly failed him, but he dug within himself and delivered when it mattered.
The early stages of the first set provided a familiar sight – both players trying to limit the damage wrought by the other’s forehand weaponry. Federer was as balletic and graceful as ever, to the point you were able to ignore that he hadn’t won a major final in five years – a tennis eon – and had been written off as a spent force in the intervening years.
It stayed on serve until the seventh game – Nadal’s fourth on serve – when Federer unfurled an un-returnable backhand and then an imperious forehand winner, setting up two break points and claiming the first. With economy of effort and an out-swinging ace to seal it, he’d taken the first set 6-4 in 34 minutes. Simply hanging in points had not been enough for Nadal. He trailed 13-5 for winners as the Swiss master went to work.
By then the arena was packed with true believers, but worship hadn’t come cheap. A day before the match tickets were being hawked for up to A$16,000 – more than it cost to buy a house in Melbourne when guest of honour Rod Laver won his last title, and quite a premium on their original price range of $413-662 at the start of the fortnight.
Nadal needed to return with energy and hope for some untimely break in Federer’s effortless momentum in the second set. The two forces intersected to produce a pair of early break opportunities, the second of which Federer conceded with an unforced error. The battle for Nadal to hold serve next up elevated the contest fever pitch, and knowing how steadily Federer’s error count was building, even on the forehand, the Spaniard hung in there.
As in the third set of his semi-final win against Stan Wawrinka, Federer was suddenly a shadow of the player who’d been commanding the contest moments earlier, and conceded another quick break to trail 4-0. Unlike that last match, he refused to simply write it off entirely, breaking back once and giving Nadal hell in some barnstorming rallies before conceding the set 6-3 in 42 minutes.
Federer was two worryingly contrasting versions of himself at the start of the third set. He mixed howlers with howitzers in an awkward, 10-minute-long hold of serve to start. Then just as quickly returned to his virtuoso earlier self, unfurling a series of mesmerising forehand winners to claim an early break and wedge his foot in the door. Nadal was still stoic and mean, but dropped his serve again and then the set, 6-1 in 41 minutes. Federer had hit 18 winners to Nadal’s four, and looked invincible once more.
Nadal though, was far from done. With a sizzling forehand winner down the line in the fourth game of the fourth set, he had three break points and took advantage. A sliced forehand winner to make it 4-1 in his favour bent both logic and a tight angle to astound the Melbourne crowd. Federer’s forehand continued to dig him a hole, so 40 minutes later Nadal had pushed it to a decider.
The only surprise when Federer took a medical time-out before the fifth set was that neither battle-weary player had done so sooner. Hopping about energetically as he waited, Nadal was soon tucking in to his opponent’s serve, whip-cracking a signature forehand winner on his way to an early break.
Yet the Swiss champion wasn’t done. His effort to break back and lock it up at 3-3 came after several moments of unbearable drama as Nadal, seemingly possessed, met almost every break point with a winner. Back on level terms, now it was Nadal showing fatigue as he sent an exhausted double-fault into the middle before conceding the final, fatal break.
Almost prostrate 30 minutes prior, Federer weathered a number of nerve-shredding moments in his final service game but after an unsuccessful challenge from his opponent, finally saluted. By that point you’d started to wonder whether sixteen grand seats weren’t a bargain after all.
The pointy end of this tournament taught us that sometimes the fountain of youth is actually a mirage. When favourites Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray both stumbled to shock losses in week one, it really should have been a newer-generation top ten player like Milos Raonic, Kei Nishikori, or Dominic Thiem seizing this moment – or more likely battled-hardened Stan Wawrinka. Yet none had it in him. None had this in him.
All the while Federer and Nadal were essentially playing from memory, but what temples of sporting genius their minds and bodies are. Nadal has beaten Federer so many times over the years some hesitate to call it a rivalry. Tonight the only shame, as ever, was the need to split them. Performing at this level in your prime is one thing; doing it as the lights dim is the mark of untouchable greatness.
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