“I don’t want to have the last word; this guy deserves it,” Federer said. “So, Rafa, congratulations. You played incredible. You deserve it, man.”  It is difficult to argue with that. To reach the final, top-seeded Nadal had to win the longest match in Australian Open history in the semifinals, defeating his compatriot Fernando Verdasco in a five-set, 5-hour-14-minute classic. He then had one day fewer than No. 2 Federer to prepare for the 19th installment of their rivalry. The 22-year-old Nadal underwent intense physical therapy in an attempt to recover the freshness of mind and body required to stop a man on a mission.  “I knew it was not going to affect him a lot,” Federer said of Nadal’s shorter preparation time. “It did not have any role to play in it, so I was ready for that.”  Nadal was not nearly so certain that he would be in fine shape. After getting to sleep at 5 a.m. Saturday after his marathon semifinal, he woke at 1 p.m. He practiced lightly that afternoon and again Sunday afternoon.  “I was having a bit of trouble practicing,” Nadal said through an interpreter. “I felt a little lightheaded when I practiced yesterday and today. I was pretty concerned, not being sure whether I could be at my best. It’s tough feeling that way when it’s your first final in Australia and you’re not sure you’re going to be 100 percent. But in the end, everything worked out well for me.”  The process was hardly straightforward. Nadal needed 4 hours 23 minutes to finish off Federer, who actually won one point more than Nadal did. He rallied from 2-4 in the first set, breaking Federer in the next game with the help of two phenomenal winners on the run.  Nadal needed to save all six break points he faced in the third set, when he twice received treatment for a tight right thigh during changeovers.  “Winning the third was vital,” Nadal said. “It would have gotten very complicated if I had lost that set.”  He also needed Federer, the Australian Open champion in 2004, ’06 and ’07, to serve much less convincingly than usual. Federer put only 52 percent of his first serves in play, by far his lowest percentage of the tournament. One of the most remarkable statistics was that Federer managed to win the second set with a first-serve percentage of only 37 percent.  “Perhaps I should not have been out there in the fifth set at all,” Federer, still red-eyed, said an hour after the match. “I should have won the first set and the third. The rest of the story, we all know it.”  Early in his career Nadal, like many Spanish players, was considered a clay-court specialist. But he is now well on his way to becoming a great multisurface champion. He has won four consecutive French Opens on clay, the 2008 Wimbledon title on grass and, now, his first Grand Slam title on a hardcourt.  “I’ve worked very hard the last, well, all my life to improve the tennis outside of clay,” said Nadal, who won the Olympic gold medal in men’s singles in August on a hardcourt in Beijing.  But Nadal, for all the flashiness in his left-handed game, is also a self-effacing champion, one who continues to affirm that Federer is the greatest player ever, even as he continues to defeat him.  Once he took the microphone, with the trophy in his hands, his first words were for his opponent.  “Well, first of all, sorry for today,” he said, turning to face Federer. “I really know how you feel right now. It’s really tough. Remember, you’re a great champion. You’re one of the best in history.”  Nadal then said that he was convinced Federer would beat Sampras’s record.  Perhaps Federer will, but for now Nadal, however respectful, keeps blocking his path.  Nadal has won five of the seven Grand Slam finals they have played, including the last three. He is 13-6 against Federer over all, and the only surface on which Federer still holds an advantage is grass, at 2-1.  Nadal said, “I always have tried to go on court believing I can win and giving my best, thinking that if I don’t give my best and play my best, I’m not going to beat a player like Roger.”  This final was the first to go five sets at the Australian Open since 1988, when Mats Wilander beat Pat Cash. But the roar heard at Rod Laver Arena when Federer held serve to even the match at two sets apiece was soon replaced by the groans and awkward silences that accompany an anticlimax.  Federer, suddenly looking sluggish and off his rhythm, was broken in the fourth game of the final set, blowing a 30-0 lead on his serve by losing four straight points — three with unforced errors from the baseline and another with a double fault.  That gave Nadal a 3-1 lead. With Federer serving to stay in the match at 2-5, he quickly fell behind by 15-40. Although he saved two match points on uncharacteristic backhand errors by Nadal, he could not build on that brief reprieve.  At deuce, Nadal hit a backhand winner; Federer appeared distracted by a shout of “out” from the crowd earlier in the rally. On the next and final point, Federer knocked a forehand long and Nadal immediately fell on his back, in celebration and relief.  But as Nadal began to grasp the degree of Federer’s emotional distress, he added a moment of reflection to his moment of triumph.  “Of course it can happen to all of us,” he said of Federer’s breakdown during the ceremony. “It was an emotional moment, and I think this also lifts up sport, to see a great champion like Federer expressing his emotions. It shows his human side. But in these moments, when you see a rival, who is also a comrade, feeling like this, you enjoy the victory a little bit less.”  An article last Monday about Rafael Nadal’s victory over Roger Federer to win the Australian Open men’s singles tennis title omitted part of a quotation by Nadal. He said of Federer after their match: “Remember, you’re a great champion. You’re one of the best in history.” He did not say, “You are the best in history.”  A version of this article appears in print on , on Page D9 of the New York edition with the headline: In Another Five-Setter, Nadal Takes the Title Over a Tearful Federer. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe
Rafael Nadal needed 4 hours and 23 minutes to defeat Roger Federer, thwarting Federer’s quest to match Pete Sampras’s 14 Grand Slam singles titles.