Melbourne (Reuters): In his darkest moments last year when he doubted if he would ever get back to full fitness following his knee injury, Roger Federer clung on to one thought – he still had the game to maybe sneak another grand slam title.

He was right.

Federer, who missed the Rio Olympics and U.S. Open last year while he recovered, outlasted Rafa Nadal in five sets on Sunday to clinch his 18th grand slam title at Melbourne Park, four and half years after his last.

“There’s never a guarantee but I was always positive,” the 35-year-old told the Australian Open website about how he got through the doldrums last year.

“It was about staying calm and believing the work’s paying off and that the variety I have in my game maybe allows me to maybe sneak in one or a couple.”

Federer said his belief was also based on the fact that until his injury, he was still competing well, reaching two grand slam finals in 2015 and two semi-finals in 2016.

“If you look back at my results, in 2016 and especially in 2015, I think I played some really good tennis and some good attacking tennis,” he said.

“Honestly I believed I could do it, the question was how’s Novak (Djokovic) going to play, how’s Andy (Murray) going to play, Rafa and everybody.

“I knew it was going to be hard because they’re not getting any worse and I am getting older so I don’t have much time.”

With Murray and Djokovic both going out before the quarter-finals at Melbourne Park, Federer took his chance, beating Kei Nishikori, Stan Wawrinka and then Nadal.

Federer, who had promised to “party like rock stars” after the victory was bleary eyed when he turned up to the champions’ photo shoot in Melbourne on Monday.

“Waking up, I don’t know if I slept, even if I did sleep,” said Federer. “I had to look at the highlights again to remember how close the match was again.”

Federer climbed to 10th in the rankings after his win and added it was his self belief when he had been trailling 3-1 in the final set that had helped him to victory.

“I said to myself, ‘I’m all in’,” he said. “I still had the mindset that I had nothing to lose.

“I think I was able to shuffle all those things around in my head and believe until the very end I could actually turn it around and the last four games were just epic, so I couldn’t be happier.”

Bring on the clay, says rejuvenated Nadal

​Reuters: Rafa Nadal’s hopes of a 15th grand slam title were crushed by an inspired Roger Federer in the Australian Open final on Sunday but the rejuvenated Spaniard was already rubbing his hands together with the prospect of a “special” season on clay.

Nadal battled back twice from a set down and held a 3-1 lead in the deciding fifth but was powerless to stop Federer’s victory charge and bowed out 6-4 3-6 6-1 3-6 6-3 at a heaving Rod Laver Arena.

Although defeated for the championship, the 30-year-old lefthander won a huge measure of self-belief, having reached his first grand slam final since his 2014 French Open victory.

The tournament was a major test of his fitness after a wrist injury wrecked his 2016 season and the signs were good, said Nadal, who will bid to extend his record haul at Roland Garros to 10 titles in May.

“I cannot predict what’s going on in the future,” mused the Mallorcan, who was seeded ninth at Melbourne Park.

“I just think that I am playing well. I believe that playing like this, good things can happen. (They) can happen here on this surface, but especially can happen on clay. On clay I (can) recover better than here, then the opponents don’t get that many free points, and I am playing from the solid baseline. If I made that happen, I think I can keep having success in hard courts, but on clay can be special.”

Six-times champion Novak Djokovic was conveniently eliminated from his Nadal’s half of the draw early in the tournament, but the Spaniard still had to negotiate a perilous run to the final.

He had to weather five-set marathons against German wunderkind Alexander Zverev in the third round and rising Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov in the semi-finals.

He also thrashed third seed Milos Raonic in their quarter-final to leave few in doubt that he was back to a level approaching his best.

Prevailing in the epics was the most encouraging, said Nadal, feeling that he had the mental and physical strength to handle the rigours of the grand slams.

But he admitted that he was feeling the pinch when taken into the fifth set by Federer, who won his 18th grand slam title.

“It’s true that I probably (lacked) a little bit of speed today compared to the last day in my legs probably, a little bit. But that’s normal after what happened one day and a half ago,” he said of the five-hour semi-final against Dimitrov. I think I tried. I didn’t play bad. But it’s true it was difficult to play a lot because he really went for the shots, almost for every shots.”

Although losing five straight games to surrender the title, Nadal hardly lay down.

He saved nine break points in the fifth set and a match point, forcing Federer to rip the match from his hands with aggression and brilliant shot-making.

“I am with big personal satisfaction. I cannot say that I am sad,” said Nadal. “I won against the best players of the world, and I competed well against everybody. That’s the most important thing for me, and that gives me confidence to keep playing, and that’s what I am going to try.”