THE only issue anyone could have with Novak Djokovic’s semi-final with Rafa Nadal was the fact it wasn’t immediately followed by a trophy presentation. It may have been squeezed into the schedule in an unseemly fashion between a John Isner-Kevin Anderson slug-fest and the ladies’ showpiece, but otherwise it was entirely fitting that this classic encounter should spill over onto finals weekend. Djokovic may not have too much longer to wait for the award of his fourth Wimbledon title as – with just the giant South African waiting in the final - to all intents and purposes this was his final. With the roof on a sunny day making Centre Court like a giant greenhouse, this match picked up where it left off on Friday night and blossomed into a thing of real beauty.

Perhaps the best men’s match on the tour all year long and a worthy successor to previous thrilling five-set instalments in the whopping 52-match rivalry between these two men at the 2012 Australian Open and 2013 Roland Garros, at points in this 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9), 3-6, 10-8 win over five hours even nature itself seemed enthralled; a few fluttering white butterflies seemed to follow Nadal everywhere he went, one even landing gently on his racket as he prepared to serve.

Given the absence of silverware at the end, Djokovic simply clasped the stats sheet at the end of the match as his prize. It told him that at the end of two sessions, spanning five hours 15 minutes, that he had won four more points (195 to 191) than his opponent. Both men had struck 73 winners to just 42 enforced errors, if such a thing even exists in a match like this. While he had eked out 19 break points to Nadal’s 11, crucially the Spaniard couldn’t take any of his five in the concluding set. “This is my trophy,” the Serb said. “The stats.”

If there was general agreement afterwards that neither man deserved to lose, how the Serb had longed for a moment like this in his wilderness years recuperating from an elbow problem. What more than any precision serve or passing shot, announced his re-emergence as a formidable force was the way he kept his emotions in check throughout, save for the moment when broken for 5-3 in that fourth set where he struck his foot four times in an extravagant fit of range. It isn’t just his body which seemed to have healed. “A couple times I lost my cool, then I lost my serve, then a set,” said Djokovic. “Nadal is who he is because he knows how to use those momentum shifts. That’s why this match was extraordinary from every point of view. I’m incredibly proud to overcome it.”

It only made it more gripping that these two leviathans of modern sport just happen to be a bag of nervous ticks. Rafa arranges and re-arranges his juice bottles more fastidiously than a shelf stacker in Sainsbury’s, sorting his shorts, shoulders and headband while Novak does his bouncing ball act before each serve. Even with 39 major titles between them, there was no mistaking how much this meant to both players. For all the Serb’s travails, Nadal hadn’t reached the SW19 showpiece since going down to Djokovic in 2011, a period which has seen him crash out four times to players ranked outwith the world’s top 100.

The Mallorcan is loved and admired by the Centre Court crowd; with Djokovic it is far more the latter. While it could quite easily have been Nadal - who had three set points in that third set breaker – who slept on an overnight advantage, instead it was he who had to find a riposte. But first he had to face on onslaught, punching the air and celebrating like a footballer when he finally held after a strenuous 15-minute examination on serve in his opening game. It was a pretty fair indication of how the rest of the match would go on.

The first blow of the day went in Djokovic’s favour as it was deemed the match would continue under the roof, something which could have been overturned had both players agreed to change. But Nadal’s two service breaks to one in that fourth set took us to a decider, where he continually had to serve to stay at the match. After three break points came and went at 7-7, the pressure eventually told. “I can say he deserves it, because he does deserve it,” said Nadal. “In my opinion, I deserve it, too. Both of us deserve it. As I say the other day against del Potro, anyone could win. Today I say the same. The other day was for me, today was for him. That’s it.

“Normally I am very critical with myself,” he added. “But I hit great shots. I played aggressive. I missed balls, not too many, but I missed some ones. Of course, I’m not happy with the final result. But I’m happy about being part of this match that have been a great one.”

The Spaniard, who had kept himself occupied yesterday putting in the All England Club locker room., suggested they should have been on first on Friday, not second. Instead Djokovic has to play three straight days. “Kevin also had quite a few hours on court the last couple matches. But he had a day off, which is quite necessary at this stage. I don’t know if I’ll be the clear favorite. I think we’re quite even.”