体坛英语新闻：Djokovic edges out Nadal in historic Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Jan. 29 (Xinhua) -- Defending champion and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic won his third Australian Open title after beating 10-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal of Spain 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, 6-7 (5) and 7-5 in a historic final here Sunday evening.

Djokovic has now won five Grand Slam titles, four of which came from the latest five Grand Slams. He continued his recent domination over the second seeded Spaniard, having beaten him in their last seven meetings, all in finals.

"I'm playing against one of the greatest players ever. Nadal is so mentally strong and always comes up with his best game and best shots at the right moments," said Djokovic.

"Unfortunately there had to only be one winner because we both gave it all," he added. "Unfortunately there couldn't be two winners."

It was Nadal's first time to lose a Grand Slam final after winning the first set. He broke Djokovic's serve game twice in the first set, the fifth and 11th games.

"I wanted to win, but I'm happy about how I did. I had chances against the best player of the world today," said Nadal. "(I'm) so very happy about the beginning of the 2012 season. I'm happy I am in the real right way."

"I suffered during the match, but I enjoyed all the troubles that I had during all the match.

"I played more aggressive. I played with more winners than ever. My serve worked well. The mentality and the passion was there, another time better than, probably never another one," added Nadal. "So very happy for everything."

Djokovic managed to turn the match when he won to go 3-1 up with a superb volley after lucky netcord. But a double fault for the set allowed Nadal to bring it back to 5-4, only for the Spaniard to do the same in the next serve game and give the set to the Serbian.

Djokovic played his best tennis of the match in the third set. Nadal failed to adapt to the depth of Djokovic's groundstrokes, setting up winners for the Serbian as he broke twice en route to a 6-2 win in 45 minutes, the shortest set of the marathon final.