Australian Open 2012: Final Defeat Will Bother Rafael Nadal for a Long Time

Rafael Nadal will never forget his heart-breaking loss to Novak Djokovic in the final of the 2012 Australian Open, because there were several times in the match when the Spanish star could have eliminated the world's No. 1-ranked player.

After taking the first set, Nadal could have made the match extremely difficult for Djokovic, especially since in the semifinal, Novak had to expend so much energy and strength to beat Britain's Andy Murray in a grueling five-set match.

But Nadal lost the next two sets before winning the fourth to set up a deciding fifth frame. In the fifth set, Nadal took a commanding 4-2 lead and looked poised to pull of another amazing Grand Slam singles title.

However, Nadal let Djokovic come back and tie the set 4-4 thanks to some unforced errors and not being effective enough on his serve.

Now Nadal has lost three straight Grand Slam finals—all to Djokovic—and you have to think the Serbian star has the mental edge in this fantastic rivalry, which is arguably the best in tennis right now.

Nadal played better than he did in the two previous Grand Slam finals defeats to Djokovic, yet it still wasn't enough to find a win.

The hardest losses to take are the ones where you come so close but don't get the result you want. Nadal played better than Djokovic at several times during this awesome match, but now he must recover mentally and physically after nearly six hours of play on Sunday.

The next Grand Slam tournament is the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris, an event that Nadal has dominated in his career, winning six times. He is the defending champion of the event and is the best clay-court player in the world.

This loss to Djokovic will hurt badly for Nadal, because he could have easily won his 11th Grand Slam singles title, but he can take comfort in the fact that the next Grand Slam of the year is the one he dominates better than anyone.

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