Top 5 Grand Slam finals from the 2010s decade

#2 2012 Australian Open: Djokovic beat Nadal 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-5

Djokovic beats Nadal in the longest ever Grand Slam final at the 2012 Australian Open

Novak Djokovic beat a determined Andy Murray in a five-set semifinal to record his 400th singles match win. That enabled him to return to the Australian Open title match for the second time in as many seasons, where Rafael Nadal lay in wait.

In an attritional opening set, Nadal gained the upper hand in a grueling baseline rally to break Djokovic and take the set 7-5. Djokovic upped the ante, breaking the Nadal serve twice in the next two sets to take a 2 sets to 1 lead.

Djokovic would stand to rue squandering a 0-40 opportunity on Nadal's serve in the ninth game of the set, and then a 5-3 lead in the ensuing tiebreak. The Spaniard reeled off four points in a row to force a decider, as the final moved into a fifth hour.

It was Nadal who made the first move in the decider, breaking Djokovic for a 4-2 lead, but he failed to consolidate the break as the Serb broke back. Both players were now stretched to their absolute physical limits, as was evidenced by Djokovic falling to the court following an exhausting 31-point rally in the opening point of the ninth game.

Djokovic's moment seemed to have passed as Nadal saved a break point to lead 5-4.

But in the longest ever Grand Slam final at 5 hours and 53 minutes, the Serb drew on the innermost recesses of his physical and mental reserves. Djokovic won the next three games of the match to deny Nadal the opportunity of becoming the first player in the Open Era to win each of the four Grand Slams on multiple occasions, and in the process also recording his first successful title defence at a Major.