MELBOURNE, Australia — The Australian Open men’s final on Sunday between Roger Federer and Marin Cilic will be a rematch of last July’s Wimbledon final.
It also will be an on-court reunion after two impromptu practice sessions last November in the Maldives.
“It was just the two of us,” Federer said with one of his goofy baritone laughs.
Has there been a great champion who was chummier with his rivals since the big-money era in tennis began?
Though one suspects the Federers and the Djokovics will not be vacationing together anytime soon, one of Federer’s most remarkable achievements — in a career brimming with them — is to have somehow remained popular in the locker room as he has racked up more major singles titles than any other man in history and piled up career earnings in the direction of $1 billion.