Melbourne: Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal take to Rod Laver Arena to reprise one of the great sporting rivalries of the modern age Sunday, a fitting climax to an Australian Open which has sent tennis back to the future.
After the thirty-something Williams sisters play their own throwback final Saturday, Federer and Nadal will meet in a Grand Slam final for the first time in more than five years.
Their ninth meeting in a Grand Slam final is all the sweeter for being so unexpected. Last October, as both men have recalled this week, Federer travelled to Mallorca for the opening of his friend’s new tennis academy.
The Swiss was on one leg after knee surgery and the Spaniard still hampered by the wrist injury that wrecked his 2016 season.
As Nadal and Federer arrived at Melbourne Park as ninth and 17th seeds, therefore, the first drafts of the obituaries of two great sporting careers were being prepared.
They were hurriedly dropped back into the files, however, as it became apparent the duo were playing vintage tennis — Federer all fluidity and peerless shot-making, Nadal at his brutal best from the baseline.
The early departures of reigning champion Novak Djokovic and top seed Andy Murray, the players who had joined Federer and Nadal to make up the ‘Big Four’, then opened up the path to a grand final reunion.
Although it has often felt more like 2007 than 2017 at Melbourne Park this week, even great champions are not immune to the ravages of time.
At 35, Swiss Federer is the oldest men’s Grand Slam finalist since Ken Rosewall lost the US Open final in 1974 at the age of 39. Nadal might be five years younger but has been on tour since his late teens and the effort required for his attritional playing style puts tremendous strain on his body.
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