Tennis lovers were glued to their TV sets for almost six hours on Sunday night, watching what has been hailed as the greatest ever Australian Open final.

World No.1 Novak Djokovic claimed the longest Grand Slam final in history, to record his third title at Melbourne Park.

The Serbian downing Rafael Nadal in five excruciating sets, 5-7 6-4 6-2 6-7 (5-7) 7-5, with the pair finally shaking hands at 1.37am (local time).

The Herald Sun reports, delays between points added up to record the ridiculously long time of five hours and 53 minutes.

French chair umpire Pascal Maria was forced to asked Nadal to hurry up after the end of the first set, which took 80 minutes.

The 20-second allowance between points was regularly flouted, often dragging out to 30 seconds or longer.

While rain stopped play briefly at 4-all in the fourth set, prompting staff to close the roof while the court was dried.

But the pair admitted, there was ecstasy in their agony with Nadal saying it's "nice (to) be there fighting, trying to go to the limit, bring your body to the limit of his chances. Something I really enjoy, and I always said is good suffer, enjoy – enjoy suffering, no?"

Djokovic agreed, "I maybe had a similar feeling in a couple of matches, but nothing like this. You are in pain, you suffer, you know that you're trying to activate your legs, you're trying to push yourself another point, just one more point, one more game. Your toes are bleeding. Everything is just outrageous – but you're still enjoying that pain."

Many would then agree, he was deserving of the $2.3million winners cheque.