Australian Open: The age of Federer and Djokovic is not over yet

Veterans Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic proved yesterday that the old guys have still got it.

Roger Federer celebrates his win against Aljaz Bedene. Picture: AAP

If day one of the Australian Open was about the next generation flexing their muscles, yesterday it was veterans Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic proving that the old guys have still got it.

Federer, 36, continued the longest first-round winning streak in tennis, blitzing Slovenian Aljaz Bedene in straight sets to make it 19 successive tournament-opening wins at the Australian Open.

The world No 2 needed just one hour and 39 minutes in his 6-3 6-4 6-3 win on Rod Laver Arena to set up a second round encounter with German Jan-Lennard Struff in his quest to win his 20th major and sixth Australian Open crown. The Australian Open is the only grand slam tournament where Djokovic has lost in the first round, but it is also the major where he shares the record for the most titles (six) with Roy Emerson.

So Melbourne Park has delivered mostly pleasure but some pain to the 30-year-old Serbian and as he took to Margaret Court Arena for his first official match in more than six months no one knew quite which emotion might prevail by the end.

However, it was clearly pleasure after he progressed with impressive ease 6-1 6-2 6-4, declaring that he had played “perfect tennis, like I never stopped’’ for most of the first two sets against US journeyman Donald Young.

“The first match after six months you never know how you will start off from the blocks and obviously I came in to the court today with the right emotion,’’ he said. “I was so grateful that I had this opportunity to be here because a month ago I didn’t know if I would come to Australia or not because the elbow was still not prepared for this level of competition.’’

The key feature of previews of the men’s tournament was uncertainty, due to the number of top players returning from injury. But most of that has now been resolved after the first two days.

Djokovic and Rafael Nadal are clearly contenders after dynamic first-round performances, 2016 Wimbledon finalist Milos Raonic is not after he was eliminated from the tournament yesterday, and some doubt lingers over 2014 Australian champion Stan Wawrinka, who laboured mightily to survive a gruelling four-set encounter with world No 136 Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania.

Pain was the problem when Djokovic withdrew during his quarter-final at Wimbledon last year with an elbow injury that ruled him out of the rest of the year. He also bailed out of the tour event in Doha two weeks ago because he wasn’t ready and had had only one exhibition match against Dominic Thiem (Djokovic won in straight sets) leading into his first-round match against former world junior No 1 Young, so there was considerable speculation about his readiness.

Djokovoic, the 14th seed here after his extended lay-off, dispelled all concern about his form in a matter of minutes.

He was wearing a beige sleeve to protect his right elbow, but there was nothing beige about his game. He raced through the first set 6-1 in 23 minutes, losing just four points on serve while breaking world No 63 Young twice and exhibiting all the qualities that took him to a career Grand Slam in 2016.

In evidence as usual was his freakish court coverage, catlike reflexes and agility, ability to turn exceptional defence into attack.

By the first game of the second set, when Young was again down break points, crowd sympathy had swung towards him as they tried to lift him to at least make the match competitive.

The only sign that Djokovic had been away at all was when he pressed too hard on three match points on Young’s serve at 5-3 in the third set and let his quarry escape temporarily.

But he made no mistake on his own serve to wrap up the match.

If he had to quibble about anything in his play it was that he did not bring enough intensity to those first match points but he was not inclined to be picky. “After six months, there’s not much to say in a negative note about it’’ he said.

His reward will be a dangerous second round meeting with unpredictable Frenchman Gael Monfils, a former top 10 player now ranked 39th.

For Wawrinka, playing his first match in six months after knee surgery, it was a much harder prospect on Hisense Arena. It all appeared to be on track as he went two sets up, but he lost his way in the third and was a break down in the fourth before rallying to win 6-3 6-4 2-6 7-6.

He was a relieved man afterwards confessing he had a “a lot of doubt’’ coming into the tournament.

Wawrinka eventually prevailed, but Raonic did not. The big Canadian has struggled since returning from wrist surgery and was ejected from the tournament after a tight four-set match by Slovakian Lukas Lacko, who won 6-7 7-5 6-4 7-6.