The 'epic' six-hour Australian Open final: By the numbers (The Week)

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Novak Djokovic outlasted Rafael Nadal to win the Australian Open in the longest men's tennis final ever. Here's a stats-based look at the battle

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The Australian Open ended with a men's tennis final for the history books, as Novak Djokovic of Serbia ground out a win against Spaniard Rafael Nadal in an "epic" match that lasted a record six hours, into the early morning hours, Melbourne time. "Numbers, and there were many of them... do not sum up the emotional power of this duel, which deserves a place among the most riveting matches in the modern history of the sport," says The New York Times' Christopher Clarey. But it's hard to grasp the significance of this "match for the ages" without the numbers:

5 hours 53 minutes
Length of Sunday's Djokovic-Nadal match, a record when it comes to international tennis finals

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1:37 am
Time at which the match finally ended, in local time

4 hours 54 minutes
Previous record, a 1988 U.S. Open match between Mats Wilander and Ivan Lendl

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4 hours 48 minutes
Length of Nadal's winning 2008 Wimbledon final against Roger Federer

4 hours 50 minutes
Length of Djokovic's winning semi-final match against Andy Murray on Friday

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11 hours 5 minutes
Longest men's tennis match on record, when John Isner beat Nicholas Mahut in the first round at Wimbledon in 2010

7
Consecutive finals Nadal has now lost to Djokovic

3
Consecutive Grand Slam Titles Nadal has lost to Djokovic, a record

5
Men who have won three consecutive Grand Slam titles: Nadal, Djokovic, Federer, Pete Sampras, and Rod Laver

1
Grand Slam tournament Djokovic has never won, the French Open

5
Djokovic's total Grand Slam titles

10
Nadal's total Grand Slam titles

16
Federer's total Grand Slam titles, a record

16-14
Nadal's overall head-to-head record against Djokovic

82 minutes
Length of Saturday's women's final, between Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova

88 minutes
Length of just the fourth set of the Djokovic-Nadal final

Sources: AP, New York Times, New Yorker, Sports Illustrated (2)

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