Before the first Grand Slam quarterfinal of his ascendant career, Gilles Simon told a pool of reporters that he’d need to run for five hours in order to beat Rafael Nadal. “I have no choice,” Simon said.

The press corps laughed at the Frenchman’s comment, but any knowledgeable tennis analyst had to realize how true the statement was.

Simon ran for 2 hours and 28 minutes on Wednesday night in an enclosed Rod Laver Arena, contesting each point tooth and nail against the reigning world No. 1. True to his words, Simon clearly needed twice the time. Nadal’s 6-2, 7-5, 7-5 victory was the fruit of a champion’s extraordinary toughness. Had the Spaniard been anything less than rock-solid in a number of key situations, this straight-set scoreline–which was far closer than the numbers could ever indicate–would have turned into a five-set, five-hour tour the Frenchman had envisioned from the very beginning.

Had Simon been able to convert a set point in the second set, plus a break point at 4-3 in the third, this match would have continued well into the Melbourne night. Given the way Nadal was content to trade groundstrokes from the back of the court, the prospect of additional sets could have doubled the duration of this slam slugfest.

Before talking about the magnificence of Nadal under pressure, it’s worth taking a little time to extol the virtues of the man he defeated. Simon didn’t concede a single point in this match; the lanky 24-year-old covered the entirety of the court without appearing to be particularly tired. More times than one could reasonably count, Simon absorbed Rafa’s body blows and kept coming back for more. One representative pattern captured the spirit of this vigorous contest.

On several different points, the same progression would emerge in an all-court rally: First, Rafa would hit a crosscourt backhand to Simon’s forehand corner. Next, Simon would block the forehand to the middle third of the court, after which the top seed would hit a signature lefty forehand to Simon’s backhand corner. The Frenchman, running full-tilt, would then retrieve the shot to the middle of the court, drawing a drop-shot reply from Nadal into the deuce court service box.

Sometimes, this series of events favored Nadal, as Simon failed to retrieve the drop shot for a winner. On other occasions, the Frenchman managed to do something with the ball once he got there. The important thing to note about this pattern, however, is that on almost all occasions in which it unfolded, Simon got to the drop shot in time. For any player pinned several feet behind the baseline, the idea of running from sideline to sideline, and then to the net in a diagonal direction, would have seemed ludicrous. The amount of sprinting turned in by Simon gave the impression that Nadal was bullying his opponent. Yet, when one considers how consistently Simon retrieved Nadal’s shots–enabling the Frenchman to claim a 42-29 advantage in winners–what seemed like unfair treatment was really an exhibition of uncommon effort by an underappreciated player. Simon might have found himself in a defensive position far more than a top 10 player should ever hope for, but if you can run forever as Gilles Simon can, being jerked around the court ceases to be a negative factor. When Simon said he was willing to run for five hours, he really meant it; because of the Frenchman’s court coverage, Nadal had to sweat bullets in each of the last two sets.

Whenever a moment of truth did in fact arrive, however, Nadal would remind his opponent–and a crowd spared from Melbourne’s record-breaking heat–why the Mallorcan has become the best tennis player on the planet. For all of Simon’s Gallic gallantry, Nadal shut the door on his untiring opponent whenever the stakes were raised.

In the second set, Nadal stared down a set point when serving at 4-5, but an overhead smash denied Simon’s one big sniff of success. Emboldened by his escape from an extended match, Nadal naturally dug in his heels in the 5-all game on Simon’s serve.

At love-30, Nadal came up with the shot of the tournament. Simon hit a low, flat, and penetrating crosscourt forehand off a weak Nadal return to establish a commanding position on the court. Nadal–in his forehand corner–ran a few feet outside the doubles alley while standing roughly three feet behind the baseline. From such an angle, it seemed almost impossible for Nadal to take a swing forceful enough to curl the ball over the net and into the court. Yet, that’s exactly what the world No. 1 managed to do. The running forehand not only came back into the court; it landed past the service box and prevented Simon from knocking off a volley in response. The stunning winner gave Nadal a love-40 stranglehold on the game and enabled the Spaniard to break for 6-5. After holding serve in the following game, Nadal–once so close to the edge–had increased his lead to two sets.

Yet, Simon wasn’t through.

The Frenchman–fighting in a way few men ever have in the face of almost-certain defeat against Nadal–continued to spill his tank and run down shots with admirable reliability. Simon proved to be so persistent that the sixth seed, at 4-3 in the third, had a break point on Nadal and a chance to take command of the set.

Again, Nadal would have a permanent solution to his temporary problems, as an extended rally on that break point prevented Simon from gaining any leverage whatsoever. After holding for 4-all, Nadal once again broke Simon in the latter stages of a set and served out the match at 6-5. He was pushed far more than the final score could ever indicate, but whenever he needed to come good against a dogged opponent, Rafael Nadal had a ready reply.

Champions might not be great 100 percent of the time, but they’re always great when they have to be. Rafael Nadal taught this lesson to Gilles Simon, and as a result, a first-ever final in a hardcourt slam event is now just one win away for the most unshakable and unflappable figure in all of men’s tennis.