Australian Open 2012: Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal in for Battle of Attrition

Winning a Grand Slam title is never easy. Just ask Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

Djokovic will be gunning for his fifth major championship, and Rafa his 11th, when these two legs of the "Trivalry" meet in the final at the 2012 Australian Open on Sunday.

Where once both appeared to be in cruise control along their collision course, now Novak and Nadal come into play having been battered and bruised by their most recent combatants. Djokovic didn't drop a single set until the fourth round, when native Aussie Lleyton Hewitt pushed the big Serbian to four sets. Nadal, on the other hand, dominated until the semifinals, when he tussled with Roger Federer in yet another classic duel between two of the giants of men's tennis.

This, despite Rafa suffering through shoulder and knee pain that nearly forced him out of the tournament altogether and winding up in a local hospital this past Sunday.

Hence, fatigue figures to factor into the equation for both finalists, even at the first Grand Slam event of the 2012 calendar.

And, of course, in different ways. For Djokovic, the concern rests with his having battled through tweaks and pains of his own while coming up against less-than-suppliant competition this week. As strenuous as his struggles against Hewitt and David Ferrer were, Djokovic's most draining test came on Friday against Andy Murray, with the Briton pushing the Djoker to five sets in a nearly five-hour-long tussle at Rod Laver Arena.

Nadal will have had an extra day to rest when he returns to the court for the finale, though he'll have needed it more, what with the litany of injuries that have plagued the Spaniard this year.

In other words, neither Djokovic nor Nadal will be particularly healthy or well-rested, though that should do little to diminish the passion and intensity at Melbourne Park.

If familiarity breeds contempt, then these two should be at each other's throats with their rackets. Sunday's match will mark the 30th time Rafa and the Djoker have gone head to head, with the former winning 16 times and the latter claiming 13. They last faced off in the final at the 2011 US Open, from which Djokovic emerged victorious in four sets with his third Grand Slam title of the season.

It's only fitting, then, that these two titans of tennis would kick off the new year the same way they closed out the last one—with yet another historic match for all the proverbial marbles.

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