The future seemed so simple, didn’t it?

Roger Federer was fading, Rafael Nadal was surging.

Nadal, with his nine Grand Slam titles, would take a serious run at Federer’s record 16 Slams. It was just a matter of time.

Enter Novak Djokovic.

The Serbian Backboard has just taken two ATP finals from Nadal in as many weeks. The latest (from the Miami Herald):

Novak Djokovic outlasts Rafael Nadal in a third-set tiebreaker

Three hours had gone by, 194 points had been played under the scorching sun, Rafael Nadal had changed his sweat-drenched shirt 10 times, and still it was anybody’s guess who would win the Sony Ericsson Open men’s final Sunday.

The top-ranked Nadal and No. 2 Novak Djokovic were deadlocked and running out of energy heading into the final-set tiebreaker as a lively crowd of 14,625 — the largest ever to watch the championship in Key Biscayne — enjoyed every minute of the compelling action. After lopsided results in the men’s semifinals and women’s final, the audience was finally getting its money’s worth.

Djokovic rallied from a set down to beat Nadal 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) in a match that lasted 3 hours 21 minutes. When it was finally over, when the Serb’s forehand cross-court winner whizzed out of Nadal’s reach on match point, he raised his arms skyward and roared, as he did when he first won this tournament in 2007. And the Djokovic fans serenaded their hero with “No-lay! No-lay!” — his Serbian nickname.

Nadal reacted in his usual classy way:

“I was there, fighting until the last point, nothing left in my body right now,” Nadal said. “That’s sport. I love these kind of matches. But for sure, I love to win, not lose.”

He was asked why he went for an ice scarf after the first set, and why he was bending over after the match.

“Well, it was very, very hot outside, you were there?” he asked the reporter. When the reporter said she was in the shade, he smiled. “You were in the shade, so you weren’t there. It was very, very hot. I sweat crazy, like 10 T-shirts. I was seriously very tired at the end. But I was fighting until the last point because I felt if I am tired, the other one must be tired, too. The hot and the sun is for both of us.”

Djokovic, for his part, was upbeat, but modest.

“I know I had the best start of the season, no question about it, it’s the best four months of my life,” he said. “But it’s only the start of the season. It’s a bit early to talk about getting that top spot. It’s still quite a big difference. Rafa is definitely the best player in the world now.

“If I want the No. 1 ranking, I need to play consistently throughout the year. We all know clay is Rafa’s favorite surface and somewhere I haven’t had a lot of success.

Bring on the French Open!