Top 10 Stories from the 2017 Australian Open

8. The All-Swiss Match Where Federer Was the One Pulling the Upset

When Roger Federer arrived in Australia to begin his year at the Hopman Cup, he hadn’t played since Wimbledon. He’d spent the half a year since dealing with a knee injury. Going into Melbourne, he was just hoping to win a few rounds.

He won far more than that. After beating a pair of qualifiers, he came up against top player Tomas Berdych in the third, and beat him in straights. It took him five sets to get past number 5 seed Kei Nishikori the following round, but he won that one too. Meanwhile, countryman Stan Wawrinka was much more expectedly advancing. After spending years in Federer’s shadow, in the most recent years he’d finally broken out. While Federer had been recovering, he’d claimed his third grand slam, solidifying himself as the new top Swiss player. When they met in the semifinals, for the first time Wawrinka was the undisputed favorite.

They both played at the top level in the first set before Federer stole it. Wawrinka, struggling with his injured knee, ended up losing the second set too and taking a medical timeout. Then he pulled himself together, Federer’s level dipped, and he took the third set within half an hour and the fourth in not much longer. With Federer now needing medical treatment it looked like Wawrinka would pull the recovery off. But in the fifth set, he blinked, and that was all Federer needed to serve it out.

“I never, ever in my wildest dreams thought I would come this far,” said Federer after he won. But on the quest to go one step further, he soon found himself facing an old friend…