Suffering and Service Returns: How Novak Won the 2012 Australian

Novak and Rafa: one of the best battles in planet history? It was the stuff of legends. The tennis world had its breath taken away in the 2012 Australian Open men's singles final as Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal engaged in one of the best battles ever seen in any sporting arena on the planet. Let's look at this remarkable match from two sides - the emotional and the statistical. Both have a lot to teach us about tennis matches and what it takes to win them. Suffering Two great fighters fought like they had never fought before, searching inside for new reserves of courage and determination. Was this what it was like in the Roman Republic to watch gladiators look each other in the eye and fight until there was only one man standing? The message: you win in sports when you don't give up. If there is one word that described what happened in this match it's pain. Novak and Rafa pushed each other to break through previous mental and emotional boundaries. Eventually they reached a place where the pain was actually welcomed and enjoyed, a place they had been searching for their entire lives even if they...