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The first four sets were just a delicious entree.

Roger Federer defeated Rafael Nadal 6-4 3-6 6-1 3-6 6-3 to defy the odds, to defy all expectations, to defy father time. Federer defiantly fought the forces of what was expected of him just 14 days ago – which wasn't a lot.

The match essentially got busy with Nadal serving at 3-4 in the fifth set. There were so many amazing moments that led up to this point in time, but this is where the rubber really met the road.

Nadal made a forehand error followed by another forehand error, followed by a double fault to fall behind 0-40. It was a hole that Nadal temporarily climbed out of to get back to deuce. Once a hole is dug, it’s quite easy to fall back into.

At deuce, Federer defended like crazy and did all he could to stay in the point, finally roping a forehand winner down the line at the end of a 26-shot rally. These are not the kind of points Federer is supposed to win. Not a rally that long. Not with a forehand down the line.

On break point, Nadal surprised with a big serve right down the middle. Federer was sitting on a slider out wide, but Nadal was a step ahead.

Back at deuce, Federer gained control of the middle of the court with big forehands and forced a forehand error from Nadal on the run out wide in the ad court. On this break point, Federer hit a ridiculously good backhand return off a wide slider to instantly force a forehand error.

Just like that. Federer led 5-3 in the 5th set.

The last game was a rollercoaster. Why wouldn't it be?

Federer fell behind 0-30 then pumped an ace down the center in the deuce court. Nadal was gambling wide, but got it wrong. Federer lost the ensuing point as Nadal found his way to the net, and all of a sudden the Swiss star was down 15-40.

Once again an ace down the center was the perfect call by the Swiss maestro. Federer then hit two run-around forehands in the ad court, with the second one being a winner back towards Nadal’s forehand. Back to deuce. The pro-Federer crowd on Rod Laver Arena could find oxygen once more.

Federer fought off another break point, and then at the second deuce, served his 20th ace of the match – this time as a slider out wide in the deuce court where Nadal had been sitting on the past two points. He wasn’t sitting on it this time.

On match point, Federer served down the middle to Nadal’s backhand, and the floating slice return sat tantalizing on the service line. Where to hit the winner? Where to win another Grand Slam?

Federer made the right choice to attack Nadal’s backhand wing, and it landed right through the line. Nadal challenged. It wasn’t meant to be.

Federer hit 28 forehand winners and 14 backhand winners. He would win the 0-4 rally length 95-89, serving and volleying 13 times and winning 10.

Overall Federer won 29/40 points at the net, while Nadal only ventured forward 12 times in four sets, winning 10.

Federer’s forehand stood tall. His backhand stood even taller. He won just 44.6 per cent (70/157) from the baseline, but a substantial (29/40) 73 per cent at net.

Federer is the king once again in Melbourne. All hail the king.

MELBOURNE, Australia — The Australian Open offered N.B.A.-style on-court seating for the first time this year, priced at an eye-popping 25,000 Australian dollars, or $18,900, for the men’s final for an up-close-and-personal experience.

But when the demand spiked after a Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal final was set, those seats might have qualified as a bargain. Fans dug deep into their bank accounts and traveled long distances to witness the improbable rematch between two great Grand Slam champions.

Ticket prices for the final, which ranged from about $300 to $600 at face value, quickly spiraled upward. Tickets for under $1,500 for anywhere in Rod Laver Arena were nearly impossible to find; one ambitious Ticketmaster listing offered a pair of front-row seats for about $20,000 each.

Jessica Ye and April Liu, Chinese students studying in Melbourne, bought tickets for $1,900 in the hours before the final on the reselling website Viagogo.

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“It’s jolly worth it,” said Ye, a Federer fan. “Of course, for him, yeah. But if it was anyone else, I wouldn’t do it.”

Liu, who brought Spanish and Catalan flags to show her support for Nadal, was equally single-minded. “If only Roger plays, I’m not going to buy it, either,” she said.

Some fans who had attended earlier rounds of the tournament and flown home scurried back to Melbourne for the final.

Ronny Chow, a lawyer from Hong Kong, attended the first week of the tournament, then booked a last-minute trip back to Melbourne with his wife to see the final.

He scheduled a 10-hour stay in Melbourne with nine-hour flights each way. Their plane and match tickets combined for about $19,000, he said.

Chow had seen Federer win his 17th Grand Slam title, at Wimbledon in 2012, and said he felt he “shouldn’t miss this one.” So Chow got to witness Federer’s 18th Grand Slam title, too, as Federer defeated Nadal in five sets.

“It’s pathological; it’s addictive,” Chow said of his tennis habit.

Juliann Greene, from Kailua, Hawaii, had been drawn to Federer’s graceful movements over the years because of her background in dance. She booked a trip to Melbourne for the first three rounds of the tournament, fearing that her chances to see the aging Federer play were running out.

Greene extended her trip by three days to see Federer win his fourth-round match against Kei Nishikori, and she flew home to Hawaii before the quarterfinals.

Not long after her homecoming, her husband sensed that she would rather be somewhere else.

“He said, ‘If it was me, and it was John Elway with the Broncos right before he retired, and somebody said, “Here’s some tickets,” there’s no way I’d come home,’” Greene said. “I said, ‘Don’t tell me that right now!’ He said, ‘Well, it’s true. We totally miss you, but I know this is so big for you.’”

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Greene’s mind was quickly made up.

“So I immediately pulled out my phone and I started checking flights,” she said, laughing. “On the car ride home from the airport. I had just gotten off a 10-and-a-half-hour red-eye, and I started looking at flights.”

Greene booked a refundable flight, accounting for a possible quarterfinal loss by Federer. When he advanced to the semifinals, she boarded the flight and arrived two hours before the match.

Saskia van Rheenen, a Dutch graduate student, had attended the first week of the tournament before her travels took her to Wanaka, a small town on the South Island of New Zealand. Once Federer reached the final, she could not shake the idea of returning.

“I thought, no, it’s too much money, too much hassle,” van Rheenen said. “But I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I was in Wanaka, and I thought if I’m going to do it, I have to do it now, because if Nadal wins, the prices are going to go crazy, and then I can’t afford it anymore.”

Van Rheenen went for it, first buying a ticket to the final for about $1,600, then booking a flight to Melbourne for $530.

“It is a lot of money, but for me, I thought, I’m never going to get this chance again,” she said. “This is probably their last Grand Slam final against each other, and for me, it was literally my No. 1 bucket list item, a Federer-Nadal match. And I was only a three-hour flight away.”

There were no regrets.

“Already after the first set, I sent a message to my family: ‘It’s already worth the money,’” she said. “I already forgot about the money. This was, hands down, the best day of my life.”

The reseller Ticketbis said that the average price of tickets it handled, including tickets sold before the Federer-Nadal lineup was in place, was up 80 percent from last year’s final and that its international sales doubled.

Despite the possible payoff from putting a golden ticket up for sale, many fans who had tickets to what became their dream final said even the loftiest prices had not tempted them.

Fiona Wong, an Australian Federer fan who has the Twitter handle @federering, had bought tickets to the finals for the past five years, ultimately selling them once Federer was eliminated.

Wong, who attended Federer’s previous six matches at the tournament, said the thought of selling her ticket to the final had never crossed her mind, even when she saw list prices of more than $15,000.

“This is so cliché, but it’s priceless to me,” she said. “When am I going to see Federer in a Slam final again? Any amount of money, it wouldn’t matter.”

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Others left on the outside longed for a close-up view.

Jen Gundry, a Nadal fan from Melbourne, balked at the prices at Rod Laver Arena but jumped at the chance to watch the final at Margaret Court Arena, which the tournament opened up to fans who bought grounds passes for about $23. They could watch the match on a video screen inside, and the champion visited with his trophy after the awards ceremony.

“It’s a cool idea just to be nearby,” she said.

Toni Nadal, wujek i trener Rafaela Nadala, ocenił, że Roger Federer zasłużenie wygrał finał Australian Open 2017. Dodał także, iż jest zadowolony z początku sezonu w wykonaniu jego podopiecznego.

Widać było, że Roger jest doskonale przygotowany. Był agresywny, nadawał tempo gry i mocno uderzał piłkę. Był lepszy od Rafaela i nie można z tym polemizować - mówił Toni Nadal na antenie radia Onda Cero.

W niedzielnym finale Australian Open 2017 Rafael Nadal przegrał z Rogerem Federerem 4:6, 6:3, 1:6, 6:3, 3:6, choć w decydującym secie prowadził 3:1. - Zawsze jest smutek, kiedy przegrywamy. Ale trudno mieć zastrzeżenia do postawy Rafaela. Rafael robił, co mógł. Był bardzo blisko triumfu - ocenił Toni.
- Przed turniejem finał wzięlibyśmy w ciemno - kontynuował. - Nigdy nie robimy dramatu po porażkach. Podchodzimy do tego normalnie. Oczywiście, przegraliśmy finał turnieju wielkoszlemowego i nie możemy być zadowoleni, bo nigdy nie wiesz, ile jeszcze otrzymasz szans, aby wygrać turniej Wielkiego Szlema, ale biorąc pod uwagę, w jakim byliśmy położeniu, że Rafael w ostatnim czasie miał kłopoty z kontuzjami, to pokazał dobry tenis i osiągnął sukces.

Przed rozpoczęciem piątego seta finału Federer poprosił o przerwę medyczną. Niektórzy, w tym Pat Cash, stwierdzili, że takie zachowanie jest niedopuszczalne. Toni jednak nie ma pretensji do Szwajcara.

- Nie wiem, co mu dolegało, bo nie jestem w jego skórze. Prawdą jest, że o przerwę poprosił wtedy, kiedy Rafael grał bardzo dobrze. Ale nie sądzę by zrobił to po to, aby wybić Rafaela z rytmu - powiedział Hiszpan.

Mimo porażki w finale, Toni jest zadowolony z początku sezonu w wykonaniu swojego podopiecznego. - Udanie rozpoczęliśmy rok. To dla nas ważne - spuentował.

Na łamach dziennika "L'Equipe" Mats Wilander dokonał analizy finału Australian Open 2017. Szwed ocenił, że kluczem do zwycięstwa Rogera Federera nad Rafaelem Nadalem była agresywna gra oraz skuteczny bekhend Szwajcara.


- Nie przypominam sobie, kiedy ostatnio widziałem, by ktoś przeciw Nadalowi tak skutecznie uderzał z bekhendu. Pod tym względem był to najlepszy występ któregokolwiek z tenisistów w całym turnieju - mówił Mats Wilander.


Nikt nie jest kochany tak, jak oni. Finał Rogera Federera z Rafaelem Nadalem pobił rekordy oglądalności na całym świecie
Ale to nie tylko skuteczny bekhend pozwolił Rogerowi Federerowi pokonać Rafaela Nadala 6:4, 3:6, 6:1, 3:6, 6:3 w niedzielnym finale Australian Open 2017.
- Federer był bardzo agresywny. Uderzał piłkę wznoszącą, często zagrywał półwolejem. Na tle Nadala pokazał cały swój geniusz. Na pewno pomógł mu w tym szybki kort - dodał Szwed, mistrz imprezy w Melbourne z sezonów 1983-84 i 1988.


Wygrywając w niedzielę, Szwajcar zdobył piąty tytuł w Australian Open, ale pierwszy od 2010 roku. Łącznie ma w dorobku 18 triumfów w turniejach wielkoszlemowych, co jest rekordem w historii tenisa.