The Australian Open Men's Final 2012

The time it took for the match to complete was aptly summed by Nadal's address to the crowd post the match -- He addressed them with " Good Morning Everyone ". The final that lasted five hours and fifty three minutes ( a five setter ) was a thriller with demonstration of strength of physical stamina of both the Gladiators (Djokovic and Nadal ), missed chances ( more to Djokovic than Nadal in terms of break points converted ) , support of support staff of both players who sat through this period of time and the crowd. It was early morning on Monday when Djokovic came out as winner defending his title. Both the men gave nothing away and when it looked like one player was taking the match away , the other one will bounce back with greater energy. Both men traded ferocious strokes trying to out power the other. Rallies lasted longer but none of them ever gave up chasing the ball in their side of the court. Their physical strain was visible only at the presentation ceremony when both of them could barely stand to listen to the sponsor of the event speak. They were promptly provided chairs to sit as they twitched side to side uncomfortably with strains of pain visible on their face.

Sitting at one place and watching on Television for this long time by me did not match physical strength of the players on the court. I had to move seats , go out for a walk , do some errands , eat a nice evening snack etc etc and yet the match was going on. I could not believe that people could play so strong for such a long period of time. But that is what Djokovic and Nadal did . As Djokovic said at the end , there could have been only one winner and that was him. He was sorry for Nadal . This was the longest ever Australian GrandSlam final match and it lived up to the expectations of the Top seed ( Djokovic ) meeting the second seed ( Nadal ) in the final. Federer failed in his yet a another attempt to overcome Nadal in the semis and in the second semis , Djokovic played a another five setter to defeat Andy Murray and set the final with Nadal. Just goes to show what stuff Champions are made off !
Some things that i noticed with both Nadal and Djokovic need mention :

Never give up at any point of time.
Great Physical fitness and ability to play long with Consistency
Risk Takers at the right time ( could be a Hawk eye review or coming to the net )
Looking up at their support teams and taking direction just on eye contact. All this in split seconds.
Play with extremely high quality tennis .
Mental toughness -- not succub to pressure with noisy crowds -- the positive is to handle the extreme pressure
Play to win -- not rely on opponent mistakes but create the winning position and dominate rallies.
Accuracy of shot making ... and catching the lines at all times

Overall exciting stuff!!



For the Indian fans ,Leander added the Australian Doubles Championship to his showcase. At 38, he was fighting fit . And he choose a good partner. While we may be anxious for Leander and Bhupathi to play together , what they have done looking at their age demographics makes lot of sense. Both have chosen partners who are much younger to them and who can serve and cover the court with more agility than they do. No , I am not saying that Leander does not cover the court or the net positions well. In fact , he is brilliant at the net and his reflex actions are great. But the fact is you need big servers to bail you out of trouble and that is when younger players play their part. So, Leander partnering Stepanek with whom he won the title and Bhupathy partnering Rohan Bopana are probably the right choices … Hopefully , Leander and his partner carry on the Melbourne success to the rest of the year. Mind you , they knocked off the Bryan Brothers in the final and that is significant victory for this unseeded pair.
Leander's win brought in some cheer to Indian sporting fans , who were in a spin , looking at their Cricket team's performance