There was a sense that rather than pushing each other to new heights, Djokovic and Nadal have taken tennis to new lows of grinding, inartistic "physicality."
Shout out for Double Ds, my tennis mentor:
How interesting, i had the thought at the start of the tournament that they (Aus Open organisers - Craig Tiley) had slowed the balls down too much, once you do that the modern athlete then dominates the conditions, by that i mean if the tennis ball is simply being from side to side and the ball is not moving that quickly, then the modern player can easily get to the ball then how do you hit a winner.
Both Nadal and Djockovic are the best athletes, no doubt, are they the best tennis players, maybe maybe not. that is the conundrum, is 6hrs better than 3 hours of brilliant tennis, we don't want tennis to turn into squash or racquet ball, that is my concern, big shots need to be rewarded as winners - not retrieved and floated back in play, guys don't come to the net as it is too hard, matches are now won on exhaustion, not tennis, there that is my opinion.
Best pure match of all time, 1 1/2 hours - us open McEnroe v Lendl, 3 sets of pure hitting by McEnroe.