Novak Djokovic has won the longest Grand Slam final in tennis history in the early hours of Monday morning, claiming the most extraordinary of victories over Rafael Nadal in a match for the ages to lift the Australian Open trophy for the second year in a row and third time in five years.
The Serbian world No.1 eventually grabbed his third major trophy in succession and the fifth of his career but not before being pushed to the absolute limit by Nadal, who struggled at times during the encounter but just would not go away.
Djokovic dropped the first set but had all the momentum from there as he levelled proceedings after a shade under two-and-a-half hours and then raced away with the third set but somehow Nadal managed to take the contest to a fifth set.
In a clash that also featured a 10-minute delay because of rain in the fourth set, Djokovic came from 2-4 down in the final set to prevail 5-7 6-4 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 in five hours and 53 minutes.
The match finished just 60 seconds short of eclipsing by an hour the previous longest major decider, the 1988 US Open men's final between Ivan Lendl and Mats Wilander, and it also lasted 39 minutes longer than the previous longest match at Melbourne Park in Nadal's semi-final win over Fernando Verdasco in 2009.
The victory for Djokovic also maintained his recent dominance of Nadal, after he won all six of their meetings in 2011, including the final two in the Wimbledon and US Open finals while it was just the second time in 135 five-set matches Nadal won the first set but didn't take out the match.
In becoming only the fourth male in the Open era to win the Australian title at least three times - after Wilander, Andre Agassi and Roger Federer - Djokovic also won only the third Melbourne Park men's final to go the distance, the others being Wilanders' win over local Pat Cash in 1988 and Nadal's win over Federer in 2009.
Djokovic could have prevailed far earlier, having broken seven times for the match from 20 opportunities, a poor conversion rate compared with Nadal who managed four from six but couldn't do so when it mattered most as Djokovic served for the championship.
While Djokovic also won the winners count 57-44 and and Nadal committed more unforced errors with 71 to 69, the statistic that best summed up Nadal's night was his poor conversion when he landed his second serves, winning just 45 percent of them.