Rafael Nadal explores the realm of impossibilities during win over Novak Djokovic

Then Nadal went up a break in the fourth set, and that was all that was needed to make the contest come alive. Normally, going up by a break with two sets already in the bag is a sign that the match is about to be put to bed, but when Djokovic is on the other side of the set, ‘normal’ is the last thing on anyone’s mind. He broke immediately with a flurry of razor-sharp returns, and the rallies now acquired a whole new level of pace and intensity. Although Djokovic was broken once more at 5-5 to give Nadal the chance to serve for the match, he was in enough of a groove to take the match to a tiebreaker, which he won in surprisingly straightforward fashion.

Nadal’s shoulders seemed to slump as he immediately lost his serve to start the fifth set, and Djokovic was happy to capitalize. He went after his shots, specially the forehand, to keep the Spaniard on the defensive, and continued exerting immense pressure through his return. Still, the set went with serve until Djokovic served for a 5-3 lead, when of course, the Serb committed that fatal technical error. He had already saved a couple of break points in the game (one through an inexplicable sitter forehand miss by Nadal), and despite being in control of the point at the third deuce, he seemed anxious to put the ball out of Nadal’s reach. In his bid to pluck the ball out of the air, he went too close to the net for an overhead and ultimately lost his balance, crashing into the tape before the ball had bounced twice on the other side of the net, a ball that Nadal had little chance of getting back into play. It’s easy to look back at this as the turning point of the match, but the sheer absurdity of both Djokovic’s clumsy overhead and his subsequent me-against-the-world body language was enough to convince everyone watching at the time that it was, indeed, the moment when everything was about to change.

And change it did, as Nadal broke to get back on level terms, and held serve easily the rest of the way. The sting on his forehand seemed to sharpen before our very eyes, and by the end he was producing winners off it at will. Even his backhand acquired a new level of potency in the crosscourt exchanges, with a couple of them leaving Djokovic shaking his head in wonder. And while all of this was happening, the Serb seemed to get more frustrated with each passing game; if it wasn’t Nadal’s unreal defense that was giving him fits, then it was the court surface, about which he constantly complained to the umpire as the set went into overtime. Djokovic later claimed that he felt the court was too ‘dry and slippery’ towards the end and wanted the umpire to get it watered, but his pleas repeatedly fell on deaf ears.

Was Djokovic making an excuse for his loss? He didn’t directly attribute the result to the slipperiness of the court, but it’s never been considered classy to complain about the conditions after you’ve lost a match. Maybe he was legitimately hampered by the conditions, or maybe he wasn’t; in any case, though, it’s hard to imagine Nadal giving up the match after that critical game at 4-3. Serving behind in the final set was always going to be a tough assignment for the Serb, specially as his vulnerabilities of old (spinny first serve, frustration at being unable to end a point, etc.) seemed to have come to the fore at exactly the same time that Nadal had found his most turbo-charged defense and most penetrating forehands.