The 'epic' six-hour Australian Open final: By the numbers

The Australian Open ended with a men's tennis final for the history books, as Novak Djokovic of Serbia ground out a win against Spaniard Rafael Nadal in an "epic" match that lasted a record six hours, into the early morning hours, Melbourne time. "Numbers, and there were many of them... do not sum up the emotional power of this duel, which deserves a place among the most riveting matches in the modern history of the sport," says The New York Times' Christopher Clarey. But it's hard to grasp the significance of this "match for the ages" without the numbers:

5 hours 53 minutes

Length of Sunday's Djokovic-Nadal match, a record when it comes to international tennis finals

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

1:37 am

Time at which the match finally ended, in local time

4 hours 54 minutes

Previous record, a 1988 U.S. Open match between Mats Wilander and Ivan Lendl

4 hours 48 minutes

Length of Nadal's winning 2008 Wimbledon final against Roger Federer

4 hours 50 minutes

Length of Djokovic's winning semi-final match against Andy Murray on Friday

11 hours 5 minutes

Longest men's tennis match on record, when John Isner beat Nicholas Mahut in the first round at Wimbledon in 2010

7

Consecutive finals Nadal has now lost to Djokovic

3

Consecutive Grand Slam Titles Nadal has lost to Djokovic, a record

5

Men who have won three consecutive Grand Slam titles: Nadal, Djokovic, Federer, Pete Sampras, and Rod Laver

1

Grand Slam tournament Djokovic has never won, the French Open

5

Djokovic's total Grand Slam titles

10

Nadal's total Grand Slam titles

16

Federer's total Grand Slam titles, a record

16-14

Nadal's overall head-to-head record against Djokovic

82 minutes

Length of Saturday's women's final, between Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova

88 minutes

Length of just the fourth set of the Djokovic-Nadal final

Sources: AP, New York Times, New Yorker, Sports Illustrated (2)