Australian Open 2018: Old warhorse Roger Federer’s path to final runs into Young Turk Hyeon Chung

“There are a couple of new names on the scene, here in the semi-finals…”

This was how Jim Courier began asking a question about tennis’ talented newbies to a certain 36-year-old who has won 19 Grand Slam titles. For the last few years, the ATP has been building up a hype around the ‘Next Gen,’ a group of sub-21s that have marked their presence on tour and have started threatening the older guard.

None, however, have quite managed to make a name for themselves in any of the Majors until the current Australian Open.

It is the second semi-final that throws up a clash of the new and the old, as 21-year-old Hyeon Chung, the youngest in the last four, plays the oldest Roger Federer. It’s a match that cuts through four generations of professionals. While Federer has mesmerised them, survived them all, Chung is showing a new-found toughness. Federer is the fleet-footed genius, Chung has been the proverbial immovable object.

Ranked 58th in the world, the South Korean won the inaugural Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan in November. But in his third appearance in the main draw at Melbourne, he’s become the youngest since Marin Cilic in 2010 to reach this stage of the tournament.

So far in Melbourne, Chung has been relentless. After going past Mischa Zverev in the first round (through retirement), he won in straight sets against fellow Next Gen competitor Daniil Medvedev. In the third round, he fought back to beat World No 4 Alexander Zverev before setting up a feisty tie against Novak Djokovic.

Chung was almost a mirror image of his idol — the same aggressive shots from the baseline, the ability to turn defence into attack in a single ground stroke, and the famed slide-into-split. In three straight sets, Chung was through to the next round.

“To beat Novak on this court is particularly difficult. That’s the match I watched the most,” Federer said. “He’s very impressive in his movement, reminds me of Novak, the way he’s able to slide forehand and backhand. The way he uses a hard court as a clay court, and get balls back and stay aggressive in defence. To beat him here is one of the tough things to do in our sport, I believe. I know that Novak maybe wasn’t at 110%, but he was all right. He was giving it a fight till the very end. To close it out, that was mighty impressive.”

The quarter-final was a roll of dice, as across the court was Tennys Sandgren, a player equally new to the big league. He looked completely in control, taking charge from the back of the court to race to a two-set lead. Soon enough, the time came for him to serve for the match. That’s when some nerves kicked in.

Serving at 40-0, the ‘Professor,’ famous for white goggles, committed two unforced errors and Sandgren took it to deuce with a forehand winner. Momentum threatened to shift in favour of the American who had a break point. But in a rally that lasted 31 shots, Chung finally brought in some composure to his game. “I think (in the) last game many things come together,” he said after the match. “If I win one more point, I make history in Korea. I (was) thinking like that. I have to think about the ceremony, something. Anyway, I have to stay calm because the match is not finished yet.”

Finally, on his sixth match point opportunity at the Rod Laver Arena, with the great man himself watching, he won 6-4, 7-6(5), 6-3.

Korea’s latest sporting sensation will run into the evergreen Federer and his mountain of history on Friday.

At the beginning of the tournament, Federer had said that a 36-year-old should not start a Grand Slam tournament as “a favourite.” But here he was on Wednesday evening, into his 14th semi-final at the Australian Open, 43rd Slam semi-final, and two steps away from his 20th Major.

The Swiss maestro had taken on a resurgent Tomas Berdych in his last eight clash. And the 36-year-old didn’t start off too well, dropping serve almost immediately. Down 3-0, that was the cue for Federer to find his groove.

The tentative ground strokes found more venom and accuracy, and he served with more precision as the match went on, hammer home 15 aces compared to Berdych’s four, and notch up a 63 percent first serves in (winning 83 percent of those points).

“I had to get a bit lucky, a bit angry, a bit frustrated, a bit antsy. I’m really happy I got out of that first set. That ended up being the key to the match,” he said later on court.

As Berdych failed to serve out the first set at 5-3, Federer started to impose himself on the game. Though the Czech has powerful groundstrokes, his movement, given that he stands at 6’5”, is a little sluggish, and Federer used the whole length and breadth of the court to keep Berdych on the move. His cheeky drop shots were adding to the Czech’s agony, and it wasn’t until the last couple of games that Berdych started giving it a good chase.

But with Federer in his element by then, it was too little, too late. The Swiss hit 61 winners as he notched up a 7-6(1), 6-3, 6-4 victory over the talented Czech.

Federer had played Berdych at the Australian Open last year as well. At the time, the Swiss was going through a phase of uncertainty, as he had no longer been a major threat at the Slams. The win in the third round on that occasion changed things however. “The match against Berdych really showed me I could do it. I didn’t think at that point I could win the tournament,” he recalled after his win on Wednesday.

Months later he’d go on to win his 19th title, and a record eight at Wimbledon. Now as he’s travelled back to Melbourne Park — as the World No 2 — the expectations have changed. So has the generation of players.