Evergreen rivals in battle for the ages

Federer and Nadal strike a blow for the old guard

RAFAEL NADAL reckoned he got to sleep at about 5am yesterday morning, having gone through the early stages of his recovery work after his Australian Open semi-final.

By then Roger Federer was long tucked up, although he had stayed up beyond midnight to watch his old rival fight his way past Grigor Dimitrov.

This morning Federer and Nadal will meet in a match for the ages as the season’s opening Grand Slam reaches its extraordinary climax.

The 35-year-old evergreen was too diplomatic yesterday to divulge whether he was rubbing his hands with glee at the duration of Nadal’s semi-final, but he was clearly absorbed.

‘I watched for the whole five hours,’ said Federer. ‘Usually I watch as a fan but I watched it half as a fan and half as an analyst because I know it could have an influence.’

Federer gave himself a clean bill of health following the swapping of injury timeouts with Stan Wawrink a on Thursday.

‘The injury is not something I am worried about. For me it’s a luxury to have two days off in a tournament like this,’ he said, while playing down the effects of his preparation compared to his opponent’s.

‘Rafa is more of a favourite than I am. I didn’t expect big things here but from Rafa I did, because I know how good he is.’

Nadal (right) had a private practice session yesterday down the road from Melbourne Park at Australia’s national training centre.

Carlos Moya, his fellow Mallorcan and former world No 1 who has joined his coaching staff, was optimistic that he will be able to perform at his best.

‘It really was a demanding match physically and mentally but Rafa has been able to recover well from these kind of matches,’ said Moya.

That being the case, this possibly-never-to-be-repeated occasion is very close to callall as the Rod Laver Arenana hosts its first men’s s final since 2009 not featuring Novak Djokovic or Andy Murray or, more often, both.

The man who Melbourne Park’s main court is nameded after seemed to be leaneaning towards Federer as theth favourite, but would not be putting his house on it.

‘I think they both like this court, it’s a good speed for them,’ said the Australian legend.

‘I think also that Nadal is probably serving as good as we’ve seen. The same thing applies to Roger, his game revolves more around the serve than it does with Nadal. If he serves well, then maybe Roger has an edge.’ Laver sensed a strong fortnight in the offing for Federer when he saw him play early in the tournament, albeit against two opponents who had come through qualifying. He saw a man refres refreshed after spending six m months off the tour. ‘I think probably he n needed a little bit of r rest so mentally he was keener. He had to fix his knee and get some strength in it it. But the first two m matches he played, I thou thought he hasn’t played any be better than that. When you see th that, you think, “Can he keep it going?” — he has.’ Nadal can get within two of Federer’s 17 Grand Slam titles if he wins today, and could position himself to challenge the assumption that Federer is the greatest player ever. Victory would mean the Spaniard is unique in modern times in winning each major twice. While, as Laver pointed out, Federer is these days playing with a more powerful racket, Nadal is too.

It was at the suggestion of Moya that in his prolonged offseason break the Spaniard put some extra metal tape on his racket head to give his groundstrokes some more ‘pop’.

Regardless of who wins, this tournament has only offered up more evidence of the shifting demographic at the top of the game which sees players doing better at a later age.

There were 46 men out of 128 in the men’s draw aged 30 or over and 23 made the third round or better. There were 18 starting in the women’s singles field.

More sophisticated recovery techniques, such as post-match ice baths, and the use of massages are among the factors.

That is why nobody should think that the likes of Murray and Djokovic will be disappearing any time soon.