Australian Open Finalists Take Us Back To The Future

If the world seems like it’s going backward lately, you may be right. That certainly seems to be the case down under at the Australian Open. The finals are all set and it looks like something we might have seen a decade ago. On the men’s side, it will be Roger Federer versus Rafa Nadal. The women will see another repeat of an all-Williams final as the sisters take each other on once again. Heck, even in the men’s doubles, we will see the Bryan brothers.

Federer and Nadal both survived five set marathons in the semifinals to create this unlikely final. Federer outlasted Stan Wawrincka and Nadal was the one who didn’t blink against the impressive Gregor Dmitrov. Wawrincka had one break point early in the fifth that he wasn’t able to convert while Federer took advantage of his chance later in the set and then closed it out. Dmitrov had three break chances in the fifth, two when leading 4-3, but was unable to convert. That seemed to take the wind out of his sails as some unforced errors allowed Nadal to break him in the next game and serve out the match.

Serena Williams had little trouble dispatching Mirjana Lucic-Baroni who last made the semifinals at a major last century at Wimbledon in 1999. It was a fitting highlight to a remarkable journey for Lucic-Baroni. A young phenom, she was apparently abused by her father and actually left the sport entirely from 2003 to 2007. Shen then struggled for the next four years, competing on the ITF and WTA tourneys before finally breaking back into the top 100 in 2014. Her semifinal run here at the Australian Open is a fitting tribute to Lucic-Baroni’s strength and perseverance. Venus Williams lost the first set in her semifinal to the big hitting CoCo Vandeweghe in a tiebreak. But CoCo could not maintain her level while Venus raised hers, winning the next two sets 6-2 and 6-3.

While my heart will be with Federer, my mind tells me that Nadal’s game is usually too much for Fed to handle over a best of five set match. And while you never know what will happen when the Williams sisters play each other, it would be wonderful to see Venus, a real class act, get her hands on another Grand Slam trophy. Whatever happens, all four of them make an old timer like me not only proud but still think I can get out there and do it too. Let’s hope they can give us another pair of classic matches like they used to years ago.