For each week of the offseason, ATP columnist Nick Nemeroff will look back at one of the key turning points in men’s tennis this year.  He begins with a clash between the world No. 1 and an unexpected challenger at the first major of 2013.

Novak Djokovic and Stanislas Wawrinka engaged in a match to remember in the fourth round of this year’s Australian Open. It was a display of brilliant tennis executed under the most straining pressure. It set the 2013 season afoot and embodied what it means for a tennis match to be labeled as an instant classic.

In the same round of the 2012 US Open, the Serb had dismantled his Swiss adversary 6-4 6-1 3-1 ret., so there was little reason to believe heading into this match that Wawrinka was ready to flip the script. But three games was all that it took for Wawrinka to put the past behind him as he recorded the first of five consecutive breaks of Djokovic’s serve.

Winning the first set 6-1, Wawrinka flustered Djokovic and dazzled the Australian crowd with jaw-dropping dominance from the baseline. Combining pace and precision, Wawrinka was able to hit through the length and the width of the court, leaving the game’s greatest defender with no answers. To make things worse for Djokovic, Wawrinka’s serve was on fire, and he was one- step ahead of Djokovic, moving swiftly and efficiently to cover all parts of the courts with supreme effectiveness.

Moving into the second set, Wawrinka’s level of play kept escalating rather than leveling off. He broke Djokovic to go up 3-1 in the second set with a blistering down-the-line backhand, sending shockwaves throughout Rod Laver Arena. The two-time defending champion and world No. 1 was on the ropes, unable to counter his opponent’s titanic blows.

But, as the greats often do, Djokovic stepped up in crunch time. Down 3-5 in the second set with Wawrinka serving, the Serb broke Wawrinka for the first time in the match and went on to win the second set 7-5.

The third set featured a multitude of tight holds before Djokovic ultimately broke Wawrinka, letting out a primal scream of satisfaction. The Serb held easily to close out the third set, nailing down a two-sets-to-one lead and Wawrinka’s coffin.  Or so we thought.  The discrepancy in mental prowess that exists between the game’s top players and everyone else ostensibly expanded even further when Djokovic won the third set. Many believed that a quick, inevitable death lay in store for Wawrinka in the fourth set.

The exact opposite occurred. In the only set of the match that featured no breaks of serve, Wawrinka evened the match at two sets apiece, winning the fourth-set tiebreak 7-5. To clinch that tiebreak, he seized an extremely drawn-out rally with a forehand winner down the line followed by his most intense fist pump and loudest roar of approval yet.

Taking into consideration all of the amazing moments from this match, arguably the two best occurred in the fifth set.  At 4-4, Djokovic fended off four break points. On his final chance, Wawrinka crushed a second-serve return that landed right at Djokovic’s feet but was called out. Wawrinka chose not to challenge, but it was revealed by ESPN that the ball had actually landed in. Djokovic went on to hold.

Almost 45 minutes later, Djokovic led 11-10 with Wawrinka serving. He converted the match-ending break by creating the most acute of angles with a backhand cross-court passing shot after a rally during which both men pulled and prodded the other left and right and up and down the court. Djokovic did all of this after Wawrinka valiantly had saved two match points with a massive serve and a stunning down-the-line backhand.  Five hours and two minutes after the first ball was struck, Djokovic raised his hands in triumph and Wawrinka slumped over the net in heartbreaking defeat.

Arguably the best match of the entire 2013 season, this memorable battle was truly special. It lit a flame under the 2013 season and provided fans with a spectacle of outrageously brilliant tennis, a perfect way to begin the year.

For fans who yearn for classics like this during the offseason, this match was certainly worth the waiting. Beyond the fact that both men were playing out of their minds, this match was filled with endless drama. Wawrinka and Djokovic poured their blood, sweat and tears into all 409 points of this match, many of which can be adequately described as a war of attrition.

Incredibly, the overarching narrative in this match—whether or not David could take down Goliath—remained persistent throughout the duration of the match. It was an underdog story pitting a could-be hero against the mainstay champion, a plot that the crowd was readily able to embrace and that made the match all the more electric and entertaining.  

Despite losing this match, Wawrinka sent a vociferous message to the rest of the tennis world that he was for real. Overshadowed by Roger Federer for all of his career, Wawrinka let everyone know that he was intent on being more than that “other Swiss guy,” as the casual tennis fan may have known him.

Following the 2013 Australian Open, he reached the final of the Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid, the quarterfinals of the French Open, and the semifinals of the US Open. In addition, Wawrinka won a title in Oeiras and qualified for the World Tour Finals for the first time while reaching a career-high ranking of world No. 8.

If Djokovic had lost this match, he would have collected only one major in the last two years.  That situation would have been shocking in view of how consistent and imposing he has been during the last two seasons. Thus, this match ended up being paramount for Djokovic as well. He holds himself to a standard where he expects to win multiple majors every year, but a 2013 season with no major title at all would have nothing short of a failure for the Serb.

Many would argue this was the best men’s match of the entire 2013 season. It was truly a model tennis match containing everything anyone would want from a match:  consistency, power, touch, shot-making, drama, desire, raw emotion, an impassioned audience, a spectacular finish, and mutual admiration from both men.

Far in the future, when both Djokovic and Wawrinka are retired, there will be only a handful of performances by each man that will be remembered with absolute clarity.  Their fourth-round meeting at the 2013 Australian Open will be one of them.