ovak Djokovic continued his dominance over Rafael Nadal in the longest Grand Slam singles final in the history of professional tennis Sunday, winning 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (5), 7-5 after 5 hours, 53 minutes to claim his third Australian Open title.
Djokovic claimed the victory at 1:37AM local time and became only the fifth man since the Open Era began in 1968 to win three straight Grand Slam finals.
Sunday’s victory for Djokovic also marks the seventh straight finals victory over Nadal since March. Nadal also becomes the first man in Open Era history to drop three straight majors finals after losing to Djokovic at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year.
The previous longest major singles final was Mats Wilander’s win over Ivan Lendl at the U.S. Open in 1988, which lasted 4 hours, 54 minutes.
The longest Australian Open final also involved Wilander in 1988, when the Swede beat Pat Cash in 4:27.
Ref: Associated Press, Getty (image)