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Third seed Novak Djokovic ended the fairytale run of unseeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in a thrill-a-minute, come-from-behind 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) 3h 06m victory in the Australian Open men's final that ended early today.
Tsonga, a Muhammad Ali lookalike, captured the hearts of the fans with his
amazing, at times crazy, run through the first Grand Slam of the season but in the end his game lacked the sting to finish the Serb off.
In winning, Djokovic, who had ousted World No 1 and hot favourite Roger Federer in the semifinals, became the 50th male to win a Grand Slam in the Open era.
From the outset the packed Rod Laver Arena crowd were behind the underdog. Tsonga skipped out of the players' tunnel and on to the court to win the crowd over.
Throughout the first set of a match which had attracted the most money bet on such a clash here, they stayed with him, willing balls to drop in and any challenges to go his way.
When he eventually won the first set after 49 minutes of at-times-enthralling tennis, they were eating out of his hands.
Living up to his "float like a butterfly, still like a bee" image, Tsonga, ever the counter-puncher in the face of some big shots from the all-powerful Serb, pulled off some stunning winners in keeping himself in the set with a strong service game that included a handful of timely aces and, just as importantly, no double faults.
The only service break came in the crucial 10th game when Djokovic clawed his way back to 30-30 but then dropped two points to a stunning Tsonga cross-court and a pinpoint lob that just dropped in.
But Djokovic - showing just why he went into the Open ranked 35 places higher than his 22-year-old opponent and with US$4.8 million in his bank compared to Tsonga's mere US$484,813 - stepped it up.
Determined to take the initiative and leave the Frenchman to simply keep the ball in play to stay in the match, the Serb broke Tsonga in the seventh game and went on to level it one-set all, serving it out to love and finishing with his second ace of the set.
The third set was more of the same with Tsonga seemingly unable to find the killer blow as Djokovic continued his powerful all-court game.
Seizing the early advantage by breaking the Frenchman in the third game, Djokovic went ahead by two sets to one when Tsonga battled back from 0-4, saved five points but not a sixth to lose 3-6 after 2h 10m on court.
With the crowd warming to him, especially after he had called a medical time-out midway through the set, Djokovic ensured there would be no slip-up from the time he won the first game of the fourth set to love.
The ebb and flow continued in the fourth set, which was eventually decided in a tie-break, Tsonga keeping himself in the match by counter-balancing his hefty number of unforced errors with timely winners.
With nerves taking over, and leading to only his second double fault of the match, Tsonga could not live with Djokovic in the tie-break, leaving the Serbian star to succeed where his countrywoman Ana Ivanovic had failed in the women's final on Saturday.