Greats are out of semi-retirement
THEY HAVE a combined age of 71 and yet from the wreckage of the Australian Open, Roger Federer and Venus Williams have emerged as semi-finalists and also the sentimental favourites.
Sentimental favourites, yes; realistic hopes for the title, maybe not. No matter, both dispatched their quarter-final opponents in straight sets and both had the excitement and enthusiasm of teenagers about what was to come.
Federer ended the fairy-tale story of Mischa Zverev, the man who had knocked out Andy Murray, dismantling the German’s serve-and-volley game 6-1, 7-5, 6-2 in a whirlwind of 65 clean winners.
Zverev had the temerity to break the Federer serve in the second set but that was his one moment of glory – Federer broke straight back and that was pretty much that.
After six months off with a knee injury, the Swiss has now played eight matches; three at the exhibition event in Perth and five in Melbourne. That he is through to the semi-finals is beyond his wildest dreams and, at the venerable age of 35, he cannot quite believe how well his comeback is going.
“Winning back-to-back matches in best-of-five sets against quality players has been the surprise,” he said.
“I felt I was always going to be dangerous on any given day in a match situation but, as the tournament would progress, maybe I would fade away.
“Now that I’m in the semis, feeling as good as I am, playing as good as I am, that’s a huge surprise to me.”
But there he will face Stan Wawrinka, the world No3 and a three-time Grand Slam winner. Blessed with the best backhand in the game, he has lost all but three of their past 21 matches.
Wawrinka is strong and he is match tight while Federer is still feeling his way back to his best.
The man they call ‘Stanimal’ may be one rival too many and too early for the former world No1. He was certainly too much for Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who faded away tepidly 7-6, 6-4, 6-3.
For Federer, the whole month has been an adventure and he has tested himself day by day. With his four children enjoying the Australian sunshine, they have been cheering on their father through his campaign here. “They told me many times, ‘Please don’t lose, Daddy, we want to stay here longer’,” said Federer. “For the first time today, one of my daughters said, ‘It’s OK, I want to go skiing in Switzerland now’.”
The past 10 days have been a dream for Williams too. She has not been in the semi-finals in Melbourne since 2001 and now, at 36 and dealing daily with the effects of Sjogren’s syndrome, an auto-immune disease, many thought another Grand Slam title was far beyond her.
Yet she has not dropped a set on her way to the last four and overpowered Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 7-6. When the Russian doublefaulted on match point, Williams hugged herself then beamed from ear to ear as she pirouetted around the court. It was fair to say she was happy – but is far from done.
Williams wants this title and she feels she is playing well enough to win it. “The tournament is by no means over,” she said. “But it’s down to the business end. I feel like I’m playing the kind of tennis I want to produce the results that I want. I’d like to be a champion, in particular this year. The mentality I walk on court with is: I deserve this.” Standing in her way tomorrow is CoCo Vandeweghe, the 25-year-old world No35 from America. She is strong, she is fierce and takes no prisoners, and yesterday she flattened Garbine Muguruza, the French Open champion, 6-4, 6-0.