Following Rafael Nadal's thrilling comeback in the 2022 Australian Open Final, there has been a lot of discussion about where this final ranks compared to other great grand slam finals.
Whilst there always is some recency bias involved, there is no doubt that last Sunday night's match was within the top ten grand slam finals of all time.
What was most impressive of all about this win, however, wasn't the match itself or any of the rounds prior. Instead, it was the fact that 'Rafa' fought through the toughest of adversity to take home his record-breaking 21st grand slam title.
As he revealed in his interview following his big win, "A month and a half ago I didn't know if I would play tennis again at a professional level due to various factors, including the problems I've had with my foot and with COVID."
In order to determine which grand slam final matches since 2000 have been the best, we look through two different criteria:
1. The quality of the match
2. The length of the match (has to be a 5-setter)
3. What it meant for the world of tennis with breaking records etc
Here's our top ten.
1. 1. 2012 Australian Open: Novak Djokovic (SRB) vs Rafael Nadal (ESP)
Scoreline: 5–7, 6–4, 6–2, 6–7 (5–7), 7–5
With both players at the peak of their powers, this was set to be an absolute ripper grand slam final between the two best players in the world.
The quality in the match was extremely high in the first four sets and just continued to go up exponentially as time went on.
The game was grueling and both players could barely conjure the energy to celebrate big points. It was the closest to a battlefield a tennis court could ever be.
However, once Nadal got a break at 4-2, the match seemed like it would finally fall in the favour of the Spaniard.
Despite this, Djokovic then went on to win five of the last six games of the match to clinch an absolutely epic victory in the early hours of the morning.
The match lasted for a total of five hours and 53 minutes, breaking the record for the longest match in Australian Open history.
