Federer relishes emergence of young guns

Federer has welcomed the infusion of fresh new faces at the Australian Open, saying it’s good regeneration for tennis.

The year’s opening Grand Slam has been notable for the emergence of South Korea’s Chung Hyeon and British hope Kyle Edmund.

The young guns have made their mark with some spectacular upsets of the established order and are playing in their first major semi-finals in Melbourne.

Federer faces 21-year-old Hyeon, who rocked the tournament with his upset of six-time champion Novak Djokovic, while World No 49 Edmund dumped out World No 3 Grigor Dimitrov.

Federer, a 19-time Grand Slam champion, is enthusiastic about facing Hyeon today and the emergence of new talent in bigtime tennis, particularly with injuries hampering many of the sport’s big stars.

“I think it’s a good thing. They got to make a move,” said the 36year-old. “I find it disappointing when some of their breakthroughs come at 27, because then we know them for seven years, let’s say. I like it when we don’t know the guys.

“I like it because it’s really something totally new to me and to some extent for you guys (media), too. It’s not going to happen all the time.

“We like our rivalries that do exist on the tour. But new names are good, from time to time, of course for the tour.”

Federer, who is chasing his sixth Australian title, is looking forward to facing the bespectacled Hyeon for the first time.

“I’m very excited to play Chung. I thought he played an incredible match against Novak,” he said.

Federer is also impressed with the progress of Edmund, who has ably stepped up after the pretournament injury withdrawal of fellow Briton and five-time finalist Andy Murray.

The emergence of Hyeon and Edmund follows the rise last season of the so-called “NextGen” youngsters, including Canada’s Denis Shapovalov and Russian Andrey Rublev, while Germany’s 20-year-old Alexander Zverev has climbed to four in the rankings.