AO’s final four

Nearing the end of the Australian Open, the first grandslam tennis tournament of the year, top seeds were felled, lower ranked players moved up and vintage stars resurrected from hibernation.  The result?  Except for two newbies, the men’s and women’s quarterfinals are again populated with familiar names who hugged the tennis limelight a few years back.

By the time you read this, the match between #4 Stan Wawrinka and #17 Roger Federer had been decided.  For the 22nd time, Swiss tennis precision will be displayed on the hard court but head-to-head, the Fed Express has 18 wins over Stan the Man, who has won only three times against Roger.  The last time they met at the Australian Open was in the QF in 2011 where Federer defeated Wawrinka in three sets.

Rafael Nadal, seeded at #9 could still be playing against 15th seed Grigor Dimitrov in the other semis match at this moment.  They will be meeting for the 9th time in their careers.  Nadal has an 8-1 edge over the Bulgarian and it was during the quarterfinals of the 2014 AO that made Nadal work hard for a four-set victory over him.  The 25-year-old’s only win over Rafa was at the QF of last year’s Beijing Open.

On the women’s side, a novelty of some sort is happening.   We will be seeing the 3 oldest Australian Open quarterfinalists in the Open Era history.  Venus Williams at 36 has the distinction of being the oldest followed by sister Serena at 35 and un-seeded Mirjana Lucic-Baroni at 34. 

#13 Venus disposed of wildcard entry Coco Vandeweghe who was 11 years her junior.  Serena is the only top seed remaining and will be facing Lucic-Baroni, who is in her first final four appearance in any of the four major grandslam tournaments since her 1999 Wimbledon QF when she was 18.  If Lucic-Baroni cooperates, it’s going to be a sibling war once again.

Yes, the 6 foot 1 inch Vandeweghe has a sporting pedigree.  Her mother Tauna is the younger sister of NBA great Kiki Vandeweghe, who now heads the basketball operations of the league.  Kiki’s father Ernie played his entire career with the New York Knicks.

I would very much like the tennis gods to stage a retro AO finale.  A Serena versus Venus finals is almost a given and a vintage Nadal-Federer showdown would be a really memorable AO.  It’s been a while since we last saw them square off at the Australian Open or in the three other majors.  It was 14 years ago in Melbourne when Serena defeated Venus for the AO women’s title.  Nadal and Federer had a more recent AO meeting when Rafa won over Roger during the semis in 2014.

Serena is aiming for her 23rd majors title while Venus has 7.  Nadal won the AO in 2009 and has 14 major titles to his name.  Federer won the AO in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2010 and is shooting for his 18th majors.  Wawrinka was the 2014 AO champion, winning over Nadal.  He won the 2015 French Open and the 2016 US Open for 3 major titles. 

All 4 semifinalists are assured of A$900,000 that’s why the later stages of the tournament is full of emotions.  Consider a crying Lucic-Baroni upon winning her QF match.  Likewise, Wawrinka exchanged some heated words with Jo Wilfried Tsonga during a break in their QF match.  Runner-ups get A$1.9 million, champions receive A$3.7 million.

All losing players in the qualifying rounds also get compensated.  From A$38,500 last year, first round losers now receive a check for A$50,000, a 30 percent increase from the previous purse.  Novak Djokovic, the dethroned AO champion who exited in the 2nd round received A$80,000.  That’s why these tournaments are called the majors because major money is given away.

Minus all the whining, flopping and blaming everyone and anything except himself, I will call Serena the LeBron James of tennis.  She is so durably efficient that she can easily win over the lesser ranked male tennisters.  She’s the handsdown favorite to win the AO, if Venus lets her.  Maybe the Fed Express has zoomed its way to finals by this time.  Hopefully.