Rejuvenation might be a theme for this year’s tennis Australian Open. Venus and Serena Williams meet in the women’s singles championships match. And if Rafael Nadal (age 30) wins his semifinal match, he’ll face the 35-year-old (ancient by professional tennis standards) Roger Federer in the men’s championship.
There’s a K connection to this year’s Open as well. The late Vic Braden, Kalamazoo College class of 1951, is one of the 2017 recipients of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. That class was inducted during the Australian Open on January 23. Vic was a groundbreaking tennis instructor and sports scientists. Other members of the hall-of-fame class of 2017 include former world number-one ranked players Kim Clijsters and Andy Roddick, wheelchair tennis player Monique Kalkman-van den Bosch and journalist and historian Steve Flink.