Melbourne (CNN)Let’s hear it for tennis oldtimers. Roger Federer became the oldest men’s semi-finalist at the Australian Open in 39 years, hours after Venus Williams became Melbourne’s oldest women’s semi-finalist in the Open Era.
Williams, 36, started Tuesday with a 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) win over Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at the Rod Laver Arena to reach the last four Down Under for the first time in 14 years .
Federer, 35, then defeated Mischa Zverev 6-1, 7-5, 6-2 in just 92 minutes, hitting 65 winners while committing just 13 unforced errors.
It is the 13th time that Federer, who is competing in his first competitive tournament since Wimbledon after suffering a knee injury, has reached the last four in Melbourne. It also extends the Swiss Majors record to 41 semifinals.
With second seed Serena Williams, 35, favorite in the women’s draw, the three-somethings are thriving at Melbourne Park.
Read: No. 1 Murray, lose Kerber
Read: Istomin shocks Djokovic
“What Roger is doing and maintaining at the age of 35, what Venus and Serena are still doing… I know everyone is talking about it,” former world No. 1 Andy Roddick told reporters after being inducted into the Hall of Fame of tennis had been chosen.
“Everyone here is going to talk about it in every story they write for the rest of this tournament and I still don’t know if that’s enough. It’s pretty amazing.”
“Huge Surprise”
The 17-time Grand Slam winner meets another player in his 30s in good pal and fellow Swiss player Stan Wawrinka on Thursday – although still four years younger than the four-time Melbourne champion.
Federer said he was surprised he had come this far.
“Now that I’m in the semifinals, feeling and playing as well as I am, it’s a big surprise for me,” he told reporters. “If someone had told me that I was going to play Stan in the semifinals, I would never have said so to myself. For Stan, yes, but not for me.
“I honestly didn’t even know a few days ago that he was in my section of the draw or I was in his section.
“I eventually found out he was playing on my days but I never really looked into that quarter of the draw because it was just too unrealistic for me.”
Federer vs. Nadal in the final?
There is much talk among tennis fans about the possibility of a dream final between old opponents Federer and Rafael Nadal on Sunday – not to mention an all Williams clash in the women’s finals on Saturday.
But Federer, who is 17th – his lowest since 2001 – knows that defeating fourth seed Wawrinka is not a foregone conclusion, even if he holds a commanding 18-3 record in their previous encounters. US Open champion Wawrinka defeated 12th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 6-3 earlier Tuesday.
Federer fed Zverev – who pushed past world No. 1 Andy Murray with discs, dice and volleys on Sunday – in their last meeting in 2013 in Halle in a 6-0 defeat on grass.
Fast leadership
The way he started into this quarterfinal, one could not help but wonder if an even rarer triple bagel was in the works.
Former Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic, the coach of world No. 10 Tomas Berdych, said Federer gave the Czech a “free tennis lesson” in the third round and he did the same to the German in the opener by winning scored a commanding 5 -0 lead in just 12 minutes.
Yes, that was the same Federer who didn’t play for the last six months of 2016.
Zverev, who finished outside the top 1,000 in 2015 while recovering from wrist surgery, didn’t have time to calm down in his first Grand Slam quarterfinal.
The left-hander offered some resistance in the second set and broke to 3:1.
But Federer broke back and held in a key game at 4-5 and executed a brave second serve when he was 15-30 behind.
The former world No. 1 broke with a passing shot in the next game to end Zverev’s hopes and halt the drama that threatened to unfold.
“He didn’t really let me play,” Zverev told reporters.
Fiery exchange between Wawrinka & Tsonga
Federer’s clash with three-time Grand Slam winner Wawrinka promises to be a competitive but friendly contest – but Wawrinka’s match with Tsonga was far from cordial.
The pair, always thought to be on good terms, huffed in their chairs after Wawrinka captured the opening movement, though neither was willing to reveal afterwards what the spat was about.
“Tensions can arise between players during the game,” Wawrinka told reporters.
“The most important thing is that everything is fine after the game.”
Wawrinka, who won his first Grand Slam title in Melbourne three years ago, now has more to worry about – beating the in-form Federer.
In their last Grand Slam duel in the semifinals of the 2015 US Open, Federer beat Wawrinka in 90 minutes.
Can Federer win this Slam? Join us on our Facebook page
“I was killed at the US Open,” the world No. 4 admitted. “He played a lot better than me.
“He’s been playing so well since the start of this tournament. He had a bit of hesitation in the first two rounds but he’s really been flying on the pitch since then.
Visit cnn.com/tennis for more news and videos
“It’s great to see him at this level again. Hopefully I can put in a great match.”
It looks like he’ll have to if he wants to win.
Add Comment