Nadal Conquers Federer Once Again to take Australian Open Crown

By Eugene McCormick. Published on 02/01/2009 - 8:53am

Nadal Defeats Federer in 5 Grueling Sets

Rafeal Nadal once again spoiled Roger Federer's bid to match Pete Samprass in grand slam victories as Nadal won a thrilling 5 set match today at the Australian Open. Nadal proved again to be the best in tennis player in the world notching his sixth grand slam title and earning his first Australian Open trophy. The victory on a hard court in a major tournament is also the first for Nadal and he became the first Spaniard to win the Australian Open.

Nadal took the first set but Federer answered in the second. Nadal would answer in the third set and Federer would take the fourth and look like he would be the victor going into to the fifth as Nadal seemed to be tiring. A 14th title was not to be for the Swiss legend as he would fall apart in the 5th set getting broken twice as Nadal would defeat him once again in a grand slam final as he had done so at Wimbledon and seemingly put Federer's run as number 1 ranked player in a tailspin.

The loss has to be gut-wrenching for Federer as he seemingly had the cards in his favor going into the decisive fifth set in the match today. Nadal had been coming off a 5 hour marathon match just 48 hours ago but he would it was Federer who faded in the fifth.

Roger Federer (2) 5 6 6(3) 6 2
Rafael Nadal (1) 7 3 7(7) 3 6

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Comments

Submitted by bardiafromIran (not verified) on February 1, 2009 - 10:01am
#1

I am a Rafa fan but technicalIy speaking I think Federer is the best. It's Rafa's hovering strength that makes him look indomitable especially at the critical points of the match. I mean look at the closing moments of the 4th set; everybody, including us Rafa fans, thought he was getting really weary and I think very few could expect that unbelievable holding-to-loves from him. Australian heat of course had reduced both giants to their second-level brilliance for the most part of the game.

We should also keep a close eye on Verdasco from now on, while the current giantkiller Murray can hardly be ignored.