The Australian Open has seen some incredible upsets shape both the men’s and women’s draws, two surprise semi-finalists in the women’s draw, and of course two legends lifting the trophy again.

Seven years after his last Australian Open title, Roger Federer is again the men’s champion, saluting at Melbourne Park for the fifth time to break his longest Grand Slam drought dating back to his most recent title at Wimbledon in 2012.

He ended his four-and-a-half year wait for that elusive 18th major title by defeating his career nemesis, Rafael Nadal, in a final so highly anticipated that officials chose to open up Margaret Court Arena where the match was televised.

The two gladiators of men’s tennis certainly did not disappoint as they fought out the first Australian Open five-set final since the 2012 epic between Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal.

After a close opening set, Federer set up two break points with a terrific forehand volley winner, then broke Nadal’s serve on the next point to take a 4-3 advantage; an ace on his first set point would see him take it 6-4.

But as one would expect, the Spaniard hit straight back, at one point leading by a double-break before Federer pegged one of them back. Still, Nadal would take the second set 6-3 and it was well and truly game on.

Federer then dominated the third set, taking it 6-1, but had to save three break points in the opening game, which he did by serving an ace each time. Had Nadal converted any of those break points, who knows what would’ve happened.

Instead, the Swiss took a two-sets-to-one lead against Nadal for the first time at a major since the 2007 Wimbledon final, which to that point stood as his second and most recent win over the Spaniard at a major.

History favoured the 35-year-old, whose sole loss after such an advantage came in the final of the 2009 US Open when he went down to Juan Martin del Potro in five sets – his first loss to anyone other than Nadal in a major final.

Again, Nadal hit back in the fourth set, breaking in the fourth game and then holding his advantage to all but ensure we would be going to a deciding set. The score after four sets was 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6.

The match was certainly living up to expectations and it was only appropriate that a one-set shootout would decide the most unlikeliest of champions given both men are over 30 and were enduring their longest Grand Slam title droughts.

It appeared that Nadal would be the one to break his drought, having not saluted since the 2014 French Open, when he broke Federer to start the final set.

He then took a 3-1 lead and was surely on his way to becoming the first man in Open Era history to win each of the four majors at least twice, until Federer broke back in the sixth game to completely swing the momentum the Swiss’ way.

The 35-year-old then broke Nadal two games later to put himself into the position to serve for the championship, but there was yet more drama to come.

He fell behind 0-30 in the ninth game, and then faced two break points as the Spaniard attempted to keep the match ticking over. Federer would save both with an ace and a forehand winner, and then earn a championship point.

Federer double-faulted on his first opportunity, but would not be denied a second time shortly after, hitting a forehand winner which Nadal then challenged. Once the Hawkeye system confirmed it was in, the title was finally won by the Swiss legend.

It marks the fifth time he has saluted at Melbourne Park, following previous victories in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2010, and also sees him extend his lead on the men’s Grand Slam leaderboard with 18, four clear of Nadal and Pete Sampras.

It also somewhat makes up for his heartbreaking defeat in the 2009 decider, which also went to five sets, in which he just fell short of equalling the then-record of 14 major titles which was held by Sampras.

As for Nadal, his chance to complete the double Career Grand Slam, as well as skip clear of Sampras with a 15th major title, went begging, but he will have his best chance to do so at the French Open in four months’ time.

Channel Seven commentator Bruce McAvaney might right now be regretting not heading up this year’s Australian Open coverage, the broadcasting veteran having chosen to take a rather well-deserved holiday following his hectic 2016 schedule which included heading up the network’s Olympic coverage in Rio.

It was also the second time he had missed calling a Federer versus Nadal Australian Open final, after the aforementioned 2009 epic. In his place on both occasions, Todd Woodbridge (whose normal duties of calling the women’s final was taken up by Basil Zempilas this year) headed up the commentary and did so impressively.

The surprise final between Federer and Nadal, two men who’d endured injury-plagued seasons last year, brought to an end not only a memorable tournament overall, but also a men’s fixture which had been rocked by the early exits of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray.

Djokovic, who was going for a record seventh title at Melbourne Park, was sent packing in the second round when he fell to Denis Istomin in five sets, while Murray was on the wrong end of a surprise four-set defeat to unheralded German Mischa Zverev in the round of sixteen.

It marked the first time since the 2007 Australian Open that neither Djokovic or Murray reached the quarter-finals of any Grand Slam tournament, but despite their hiccups in Australia, both men will be keen to bounce back at Roland Garros.

As memorable as the men’s final may have been, there was no enduring match than the semi-final between Rafael Nadal and Grigor Dimitrov, which evoked shades and memories of the equally-as-epic semi-final match between Nadal and his compatriot Fernando Verdasco in 2009.

Dimitrov did everything he could to win the match but ended up falling just short; nonetheless he was extremely gracious in defeat and said that he was looking forward to the championship match.

There was also the record-setting first round match between Ivo Karlovic and Horacio Zeballos, which the Croatian serving machine won after coming from two sets to love down and claiming the final set 22-20.

Men’s final result
[17] Roger Federer (SUI) defeated [9] Rafael Nadal (ESP) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.

We now swing focus to the women’s side of things, where Serena Williams claimed her seventh Daphne Akhurst Memorial Trophy and 23rd major title overall, and returned to top spot in the rankings in the process.

If there was anyone who was going to make a statement at Melbourne Park, it was 35-year-old Williams, who hadn’t played a serious match since carelessly losing her world number one ranking after the US Open last September.

She was also dealt a tough draw which saw her face (and defeat) former top ten players Belinda Bencic and Lucie Safarova in the opening two rounds. She also had to face the emerging force that is Johanna Konta in the quarter-finals.

Nonetheless, the American produced a dominant performance all-round to become the first woman since Maria Sharapova in 2008 to win the Australian Open without dropping a set or even be taken to a tiebreak.

In the final, she defeated her elder sister, Venus, in straight sets in what was the first all-Williams major decider since Wimbledon in 2009.

After the pair traded breaks early in the opening set, a fifth for Serena would see her take the opening set 6-4 in 41 minutes.

Serena kept at that rate in the second, also winning it by 6-4 in 41 minutes to reclaim the title she surrendered to Angelique Kerber last year and in the process reclaim the world number one ranking, unseating the German after 20 weeks.

Despite the seriousness of the occasion, the sisterly love was on show during the post-match presentation, in which Serena said that “she wouldn’t have got to 23 major titles if it wasn’t for Venus”, adding that she was also a winner as well.

For 36-year-old Venus, reaching the final was a huge surprise by her standards, given she has been battling Sjorgen’s syndrome since 2011, hadn’t reached a major final for seven-and-a-half years, and hadn’t won a major since Wimbledon 2008.

But, as proven by her terrific run at Melbourne Park over the past fortnight, and even at her age, the elder of the Williams sisters showed that she still has what it takes to perform at the Grand Slam tournaments.

Serena Williams’ run to the title came as three of the top four seeds crashed out before the quarter-finals, with neither of Angelique Kerber (fourth round), Agnieszka Radwanska (second round) or Simona Halep (first round) going deep as expected.

Halep was knocked out in the opening round for the second year running when she lost to Shelby Rogers in straight sets. Her exit from the tournament was indirectly pivotal to Venus Williams eventually reaching the final (she was due to have met Halep in the fourth round).

Kerber and Radwanska, on the other hand, became victims of inspiring runs to the semi-finals by Coco Vandeweghe and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni respectively.

Vandeweghe knocked the defending champion out in the fourth round en route to reaching the final four at a major for the first time, where she took the first set off Venus Williams before collapsing in the final two sets to lose in three.

And nearly eighteen years since reaching the final four at Wimbledon as a 17-year-old in 1999, Lucic-Baroni stunned Radwanska in the second round before going to knock-out fifth seed Karolina Pliskova in the quarter-finals.

Her best result at Melbourne Park, where she won the girls’ title in 1997, eventually ended in a heavy defeat to Serena Williams; nevertheless, her run came after she was forced to pause her tennis career in the mid-noughties following continued abuse from her father, Marinko, which forced her to relocate to the United States.

One notable result which stood out among the rest was Johanna Konta’s third-round thrashing of former world number one Caroline Wozniacki.

Presented with her toughest early challenge yet, Sydney-born Konta produced the most impressive performance of her fledgling career with a 6-3, 6-1 victory, further exposing Wozniacki as a pretender at the major tournaments.

The stats from that match proved very damning for the 26-year-old Dane, who was well and truly outplayed in nearly every facet of the match, including serving no aces, not bringing up a single break point on Konta’s serve and being outhit in the number of winners (six to Konta’s 31).

Once again, Daria Gavrilova was the best-performed Australian, again reaching the fourth round where she found Pliskova way too good for her. Prior to that, she registered three-set wins over Naomi Broady, Ana Konjuh and Timea Bacsinszky.

Samantha Stosur’s struggles at Melbourne Park continued with a second consecutive opening round loss in the singles, however she fared much better in the mixed doubles where she and partner Sam Groth just fell short of reaching the final after losing their semi-final in a super tiebreak.

As the leading contenders fell in the first week, the possibility of an all-Williams sisters final – seven-and-a-half years since the last one at Wimbledon in 2009 and fourteen years since the last one at the Australian Open – increased, and it indeed became a reality.

Women’s final result
[2] Serena Williams (USA) defeated [13] Venus Williams (USA) 6-4, 6-4.

To finish off, congratulations to Roger Federer and Serena Williams, two legends of the game who well and truly deserve their titles after a thrilling fortnight of top-level tennis, and commiserations to the runners-up, Rafael Nadal and Venus Williams, who should also be considered winners for the way they went about it.

And that is all she wrote for the 2017 Australian Open, with another 349 days to go before tennis fans descend onto Melbourne Park again for the 2018 tournament, which if the past fortnight is anything to go by, promises to be even bigger.

However, the tennis does not end there, well at least in Australia, just yet, with Kooyong to host the country’s Davis Cup tie against the Czech Republic this weekend.

Captain Lleyton Hewitt will be seething after Bernard Tomic withdrew due to scheduling reasons, leaving Nick Kyrgios, a second round loser at Melbourne Park, to spearhead the Aussies against a side which will be missing Tomas Berdych.

The winner of this tie will face either the United States or Switzerland in the quarter-finals, which means a potentially intriguing and explosive tie stands to take place against the Swiss if Australia beats the Czech Republic as expected.

The history between Kyrgios and Stan Wawrinka is well-documented, while the Canberran can also boast a win over Roger Federer in their only professional meeting to date, at the Madrid Masters in 2015.

Top seeds and defending champions Argentina could then await in the semi-finals.