MELBOURNE - Early in the dark Melbourne morning, the exhausted emotion of the night persisted. Texts kept arriving from friends. Pictures of people weeping. Crying emojis. Maybe only musicians can leave people so giddy. My niece sent me a photograph of her watch. She was charting her physical reaction to the tension in the final set of the men's final and her average heart rate was listed at 100BPM.

People were identifying themselves as Roger Federer fans and praising Rafael Nadal on Twitter as if this was somehow meaningful. This was not a night for favourites nor of grudging admiration, but simply of the wonder of sport. A colleague kindly sent me a numerical breakdown of the Big Three but I ignored it. There will always be stats but now was the time to revel in the memory of the spirit of the night.