Tennis player or Superman?

Tennis Ace has Kryptonite factor.

When Murray lost in five sets to Djokovic you could feel the pain. Murray had a chance to get a grip on the game in the third set and it slipped through his fingers. You sense that even if the vital points had gone Murrays’ way, Djokovic would have found an alternative answer.

This match against Nadal was much the same as the semi-final against Murray. Only in Nadal, the champion was up against a player who didn’t go off the boil as rapidly as Murray had a tendency to do and that was reflected in the final score line in one of the greatest tennis matches of all time.

This was a battle of endurance and fitness. The tennis was fantastic but the subplots made it an epic.

Could Djokovic last another five hours plus on court in the space of a couple of days?

Would Nadal finally lay to rest the ghost of masters past?

Ultimately Djokovic triumphed 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7, 7-5 but that score line just tells the tale of the tape.

This was so much more than a tennis match. This was a battle of wills, a battle of endurance and a test of how each player would commit when they needed to wrestle the irons from the fire.

In the first set Djokovic was slow to get up to speed but after that he found his rhythm and started making shot after shot. The tennis was awesome. Would someone please put a mileage counter on how far these guys run in a match?

The pivotal point of the contest came in the fourth set when Nadal came back from 0-40 and effectively three championship points away from defeat and began to go for broke. Swinging his massive forehand Nadal saved the three points and won the tie break to set up a deciding fifth set.

As the fifth set progressed you began to wonder if these two titans of tennis would wilt. But the opposite happened and the shot making became even more accurate. This was tennis from another planet.

At 2-3 in the fifth Djokovic lost his serve and the momentum seemed to be with Nadal, who surely could not lose from this position. But Djokovic broke back and you knew that it was over for Nadal. He had his opportunity and against Djokovic you only seem to get one chance to make the champion pay.

Djokovic broke Nadal again and it was all over. But this was a titanic struggle and we are privileged to witness four of the greatest ever tennis players doing battle. For the also ran’s left to pick up the scraps they must wonder what they did to upset the gods of sport.