It is 20 years since the Lleyton Hewitt-David Nalbandian epic Quarter Final at the Australian Open, decided by a marathon 10-8 5th Set in favour of Hewitt.

On Australia Day 2005, in what was Hewitt’s only appearance in the Quarter Finals of the Australian Open, and a rematch of the 2002 Wimbledon Final, the World No.3 won the first two sets 6-3 6-2 and looked on his way to a Semi Final date with Andy Roddick, then Nalbandian came back and made a contest of it, forcing a deciding 5th Set (6-1 in the 3rd and 6-3 in the 4th) which turned into an almighty clash of attrition, spanning well over 1 hour and 40 minutes, as both players produced some superb ground strokes and dominated their own services, save for a few small moments:

– Hewitt had 3 break points on Nalbandian’s serve at 1-1 (15-40 and Advantage), only for the Argentine to save them all in a game lasting 7 minutes, the game also featuring a corrected line call from the chair at 30-40, much to Hewitt’s ire (In the days before Hawkeye Challenges, the computer confirmed it was a massive error from the linesperson):

– Hewitt had another break point at 5-5 30-40, only to net a rather simple forehand drive after Nalbandian was exposed retrieving a lob.

– Nalbandian then had Hewitt on the ropes at 15-30 ahead 8-7, and faced a 2nd Serve at 30-30, but Hewitt won both rallies and eventually held for 8-8…

– Then at 15-30 on Nalbandian’s serve, Hewitt nailed a lob and had seemingly won the point, only for Nalbandian to nail the tweener, which still gave Hewitt a rather simple touch forehand volley that he put into the net…

Hewitt won the next rally to set up break point, and in the ensuing point, Hewitt kept pulling Nalbandian into the tram lines, eventually landing a big forehand down the line to force a defensive lob from Nalbandian, which Hewitt nailed on a backhand drive to convert the break, and the Aussie would serve out the match to love, prevailing after 4 hours and 6 minutes.

More historically, prior to the introduction of the 5th Set match tiebreak in 2020, the Hewitt-Nalbandian match was the last time an Australian Open singles Quarter Final, Semi Final or Final finished in a 10-8 5th Set.

Of all the epic matches Hewitt played in that fortnight, the match against Nalbandian is a forgotten classic:

– The 1st Round match against former finalist Arnaud Clement was the only match decided in straight sets.

– There was the heated James Blake clash in the 2nd Round, in which Blake (Who already had a spiteful history with Hewitt) got so riled at Hewitt’s antics that he gave his own c’mon during the 2nd Set tiebreak, which Hewitt won 10-8 and went on to win the match in 4 sets.

– There was the Juan Ignacio Chela 3rd Round encounter, in which Chela became so annoyed at Hewitt’s constant C’mons that he intentionally fired a bodyline serve at Hewitt while down break point, followed by the notorious spitting incident after Hewitt apparently said something to the Argentinian during a changeover in the decisive 4th Set, for which Chela apologised and was later fined $2,000 for unsportsmanlike behaviour.

The forgotten part of that match is that Chela and Hewitt met again during the 2nd Round of the ’06 Australian Open, and Chela got his revenge in 4 sets, ensuring Hewitt never returned to the ATP’s Top 5.

– Then there’s the second-most memorable match of Hewitt’s fortnight, the 5-set epic against an 18-year-old Rafael Nadal in the 4th Round, in which Hewitt overcame a hip injury and ran down the tiring Nadal from 2 sets to 1 down, after which Hewitt declared “I’ll be very surprised if he didn’t win the French Open one day”, with that ‘one day’ occurring on the first Sunday of June 2005.

Fun fact, that match was Rafael Nadal’s last Grand Slam match as an unseeded player until his last Grand Slam match against Alexander Zverev in the 1st Round of the 2024 French Open.

– And the Andy Roddick Semi Final on the last Friday night, as Hewitt, despite having spent 14 hours on court in the 5 previous matches, came from a set down to win the 2nd Set in a tiebreak, then came from 1-4 down to send the 3rd Set to another tiebreak, in which he came from 1-3 down to win it 7-4, then with Roddick’s will broken, stormed through the 4th Set to win it 6-1, becoming the first Australian man to reach the Australian Open singles final since Pat Cash in 1988.

Even compared to the Nalbandian match, it was a bit dull, mainly because Roddick didn’t get riled by Hewitt’s antics.

You could argue that ’05 Aus Open was Roddick’s best chance to win a second major title, because he was the clear World No.2, Nadal was a few months away from that French Open breakthrough, and there was no god-mode Roger Federer to stop the American, thanks to Marat Safin’s fantastic win in the Thursday night Semi Final… alas, losing the 2009 Wimbledon Final 14-16 in the 5th Set was the closest Roddick would get, as he wound up losing 4 major finals to Federer.

As for the Final against Marat Safin…. that was actually on January 30.