Oldest men's slam QF and SF in the Open Era

[Phoenix1983]

Federer vs Wawrinka: average age of ~36 y, 0 m (previous oldest: Gonzales vs Emerson, 1968 FO, ~35 y, 10 m)
Federer vs Nadal: average age of ~35 y, 5 m (previous oldest: Rosewall vs Newcombe, 1974 US, ~35 y, 1 m)

Discuss.

By the way, there's no chance that the oldest final can be broken in this tournament, even if Federer were to somehow get through and face Novak Djokovic (their average age would be ~34 y, 11 m). Rosewall and Anderson faced off with an average age of ~37 y, 0 m in the 1972 AO final.

 

[Moose Malloy]

Even though it's been obvious this sort of thing was going to happen for some time (at least to me) it's still sort of crazy.

I was posting about the remarkable aging of the field in 2013, when I could see how the average age of players had gone considerably since 2008, and didn't see any reason it wouldn't keep going up.

And every other major then seemed to have a QF or SF lineup that was the oldest since early 70s. In 2015, the RG SF lineup was the oldest since 68. In 2013 the RG Final was oldest since 73. Equaled in 2016. Then the 2017 final was oldest since 1969.

There was a time when RG winners, finalists, semi finalists, quarterfinalists were a lot younger than the average of the other majors. "Young legs" were thought to be the best for clay. Now the game is back to Rosewall Laver territory, wow.

I remember the media acting like Andres Gomez was basically a grandfather when he won RG in 1990 at the ripe old age of 30, beating young guns Muster and Agassi. I remember being pretty surprised when a mature player like Muster was then able to play his best tennis at 1995 RG( he was 27)
I also thought it was refreshing to see 2 veterans in the 99 RG final(29 year old Agassi and 24 year old Medvedev - it seemed like they had been around forever at the time, and that this might be their last shot at a major)

Btw the Nadal Djokovic final this year will be the 3rd oldest major final of the Open Era. And it doesn't seem like it will be the last time they'll play in a final, right?

 

[DSH]

Even though it's been obvious this sort of thing was going to happen for some time (at least to me) it's still sort of crazy.

I was posting about the remarkable aging of the field in 2013, when I could see how the average age of players had gone considerably since 2008, and didn't see any reason it wouldn't keep going up.

And every other major then seemed to have a QF or SF lineup that was the oldest since early 70s. In 2015, the RG SF lineup was the oldest since 68. In 2013 the RG Final was oldest since 73. Equaled in 2016. Then the 2017 final was oldest since 1969.

There was a time when RG winners, finalists, semi finalists, quarterfinalists were a lot younger than the average of the other majors. "Young legs" were thought to be the best for clay. Now the game is back to Rosewall Laver territory, wow.

I remember the media acting like Andres Gomez was basically a grandfather when he won RG in 1990 at the ripe old age of 30, beating young guns Muster and Agassi. I remember being pretty surprised when a mature player like Muster was then able to play his best tennis at 1995 RG( he was 27)
I also thought it was refreshing to see 2 veterans in the 99 RG final(29 year old Agassi and 24 year old Medvedev - it seemed like they had been around forever at the time, and that this might be their last shot at a major)

Btw the Nadal Djokovic final this year will be the 3rd oldest major final of the Open Era. And it doesn't seem like it will be the last time they'll play in a final, right?

You forgot Gimeno, the oldest champion of Roland Garros in the open era with 34 years and 10 months.

 

[Moose Malloy]

Federer vs Wawrinka: average age of ~36 y, 0 m (previous oldest: Gonzales vs Emerson, 1968 FO, ~35 y, 10 m)
Federer vs Nadal: average age of ~35 y, 5 m (previous oldest: Rosewall vs Newcombe, 1974 US, ~35 y, 1 m)

Discuss.

By the way, there's no chance that the oldest final can be broken in this tournament, even if Federer were to somehow get through and face Novak Djokovic (their average age would be ~34 y, 11 m). Rosewall and Anderson faced off with an average age of ~37 y, 0 m in the 1972 AO final.

So Fed Nadal have passed their own record of oldest SF at RG here at W

Also the Djokovic Fed final is the 2nd oldest final of the Open Era after the 72 AO final you mentioned(a time when many of the top players didn't play AO)

 

[Harry_Wild]

https://www.tennisfame.com/hall-of-famers/inductees/ken-rosewall
Ken Rosewall, 39+