Tennis’s old guard has staged a surprise revival at the Australian Open, with many wondering whether faster court conditions are the reason.
Fernando Verdasco moaned that Rod Laver Arena was playing like “indoor carpet in the 1980s”, but not everyone is complaining.
Roger Federer, 35, has a real chance of winning his first Grand Slam title in five years after reaching the semi-finals, playing tennis of vintage quality.
Venus Williams, the senior women’s player at 36, hasn’t dropped a set en route to becoming the oldest female Slam semi-finalist since Martina Navratilova in 1994.
After her sister Serena, 35, also reached the last four, it marks the first Grand Slam in the Open era that two women aged 35 or older have made the semi-finals.
Former teenage prodigy Mirjana Lucic-Baroni has also rolled back the years by reaching the semis aged 34 — 18 years after her last appearance in a Grand Slam’s final four.
Along the way, defence-minded top seed Andy Murray was upset by serve-volleyer Mischa Zverev, and six-time champion Novak Djokovic lost to 117th-ranked Denis Istomin.
It has made for the most unpredictable Grand Slam tournament of recent times, with few willing to forecast what will unfold over the last few days.
Federer said his return from a six-month injury break may have been helped by a speedier centre court, which keeps points shorter and rewards attacking play.
He said older players will have grown up playing on faster courts, making them instinctively attuned to the quicker movement of the ball.
“The older generation, I’m saying like anything before 2005, they are used to faster courts. From that moment on, it was a switch,” Federer said.
“I remember my indoor courts that I used to play on in Switzerland, they were lightning. I mean, I was playing on carpet or something like this (floor) that was shiny.
“If I would have called any grand slam for him to win it was always going to be the French, because he moved so effortless on clay. That’s his base. That’s his DNA really,” Federer added.
With another veteran Rafael Nadal also in the hunt for the title — he faces Grigor Dimitrov in the semis after ousting big-hitter Milos Raonic yesterday — fans can expect a treat in the final on Sunday.
It has been six long years since Federer and Nadal last met in the final of a tennis major — the 2011 French Open, which the Spaniard won. If they make the final of the Australian Open on Sunday, it would be the ninth occasion when they would be duelling for a Grand Slam trophy, a perfect riposte to those who had written them off as spent forces of the game.
