Had you tuned in the final minutes of the Australian Open men's singles trophy presentation early Sunday morning, and you didn't know who'd won and also weren't aware which piece of hardware was given to the champ or runner-up, you might have quite understandably figured Roger Federer had been the loser.
After all, it was Federer whose lip was quivering as tears ran down his cheeks while attempting to address the overflow crowd inside Rod Laver Arena.
Then there was Marin Cilic, who had shed a few tears of his own after a loss to Federer in the Wimbledon final last July. Only Cilic's scruffy face looked somewhere between bored and bemused this time as he stood perfectly straight and warmly acknowledged the polite applause directed his way.
Yet as much as Federer winning his record-extending 20th major singles crown at the age of 36 years, 173 days makes no sense, neither did his tears, except to note he has released them in significant amounts after both victory and defeat over the years.
Maybe there's no crying in baseball, but when you are the most successful men's tennis player ever, breaking your own records almost every time you step on the court, you can pretty much write your own rules concerning etiquette after championship matches.
"I'm happy I can show emotions and share it with the people," Federer said near the close of his on-court speech. "If I got emotional, it's because it was a full crowd again. This is for them also."
Switzerland's Roger Federer holds his trophy aloft after defeating Croatia's Marin Cilic during the men's singles final at the Australian Open tennis championships in Melbourne, Australia, Sunday, Jan. 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)He is and almost always has been - right from the close of his first major title at Wimbledon in 2003 - the people's champ. No one has ever played the game with more grace and skill and versatility. When healthy, Rafael Nadal may actually be the better player - witness his lifetime 23-15 edge over Fed, including 9-3 in majors - though most of that has been achieved on Rafa's much-favored clay.
And Nadal is certainly a force of nature, full of power and fury, not unlike Smokin' Joe Frazier to Fed's Muhammad Ali.
He shows up in sleeveless shirts designed to reveal his linebacker muscles and intimidate his less chiseled foes. And while he rightly has his legions of fans, he will never be overwhelmingly embraced by the masses, just as Jack Nicklaus, though it changed somewhat toward the close of his career, could never feel the love that overwhelmingly washed over Arnold Palmer.
That's life. The male tennis community has been dealing with it for 15 years now. But what it can't also deal with - at least no one but Nadal and to some extent Novak Djokavic - is the Swiss Maestro on the court. Even in what most believed was the twilight of his career. In fact, it could be argued Federer is better than ever, if only because he seems mentally tougher when it matters most, tears or no tears.
For proof, merely consider Sunday, Cilic having evened the year's first major at two sets apiece, and no tiebreaker waiting at the close of the fifth set, but rather a death march to win by two games while winning at least six games. (In other words, 6-4 at a minimum, but possibly 7-5, 9-7, even 15-13 should it take that long to lead by two.)
And Federer's 36 years to Cilic's 29.
Still, this wasn't necessarily as stunning as Federer's escape from a 1-3 hole against Nadal in the fifth set of last year's Aussie final.
"The problem in the fourth set was that my mind was all over the place," Federer told Australia's Seven Network. "I was so close, and I was telling myself, 'Don't mess it up,' and then that's exactly what I did. I got a bit lucky at the beginning of the fifth set. I personally don't think I would have come back if he'd broken me first."
And he might not have. He might have come unhinged if Cilic had broken him to open the final set. Instead, Federer fought off two break points, then rolled 6-1 in the final set. But it should also be noted he has won 20 of his 30 matches that have gone five sets, including five of the past six.
So maybe he wouldn't have rallied if Cilic had broken him to open the fifth. But Cilic didn't. And because of that, Fed's "fairy tale," as he labeled it, continues, much as golf so desperately needs the return of Tiger Woods to both continue and his game to improve.
Beyond that, Woods living in Florida, where Ponce de Leon reportedly discovered the Fountain of Youth, may need to be revisited. Ol' Ponce should have gone searching in Basel, Switzerland, home to Federer, the ageless wonder and the tennis world's Dorian Gray.
And given this, it's increasingly amusing - though it was certainly astute at the time - to recall matchless tennis commentator Mary Carillo's observation of three or four years ago that Federer had begun to look "almost frail out there" when compared to an increasingly well-muscled men's field.
Now so many of those guys - Nadal, Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and Andy Murray, to name but four - are almost always injured as Fed flies on, often appearing to almost float above the court.
Could it end tomorrow? Sure. He'll be 37 before the U.S. Open rolls around. He has had back problems for years. Time supposedly waits for no one, though he seems to be challenging that.
"I've won three Slams now in 12 months," Federer said. "I can't believe it myself just got to keep a good schedule, stay hungry, then maybe good things can happen. I don't think age is an issue."
If he's right and the expiration date on Federer's career is still a couple of years down the road, that possibility is enough to make a lot of grown men and women who are tennis fans cry tears of joy for the foreseeable future.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.