It was the 100th Australian Open, and the longest with Novak Djokovic beating out Rafael Nadal to win the title once again.
Monday in Australia, defending champion Djokovic won the title during the longest Grand Slam singles final in the history of professional tennis, according to the Associated Press, winning 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-5 after an astounding 5 hours and 53 minutes.
He took home a $2.3 million check and the highly-coveted title.
It was the number 1 ranked tennis star’s third Australian Open title. It was reportedly his fifth major overall.
The tennis star took off his shirt and celebrated with the crowd cheering. He noted his defeated opponent, who was leaning on the net.
“We made history tonight and unfortunately there couldn’t be two winners,” Djokovic said, reported the AP.
The two are favorites among tennis fans, who have watched them battle it out many times though recently, Djokovic most times taking the win.
According to CourierMail.com, the Serbian tennis star has now beaten the Spaniard seven times in a row, each of the past three Grand Slam deciders at the Wimbledon, US Open and Australian.
By no means, did the Spaniard give up easy, taking the first-set 7-5 in an 80-minute battle.
Nadal surrendered to Djokovic during the second, a 66-minute set and equally drawn out third set. It looked like things would turn around when Djokovic slipped to Nadal, who came back in for the fourth set 7-6 but the comeback was short-lived as Djokovic took the title in the fifth and final set, taking Nadal 7-5 at 1:37 a.m. local time.
