Michael Russell began to name one tennis player after another. He listed top-100 players, but a roll call was not the aim.
He was trying to figure out who was older than he is.
“[Marc] Gicquel,” the 32-year-old said thoughtfully. “He’s old.”
Though the names of two players escaped him, one name needed no brainstorming at all. Russell will face off against 34-year-old Rainer Schuettler, the oldest player on the ATP tour, in the second round of the Atlanta Tennis Championships on Wednesday.
Russell, the oldest American on the tour, ranks as the fourth oldest player in the top 100 entering the match.
“Combined, we’re pushing 70,” Russell said. “It doesn’t happen every day that you have two guys over 30 play each other. It’ll be fun.”
That doesn't happen every day, and neither does those two playing one another. It has been almost a decade since they played against each other back-to-back weeks in China in 2001.
“We know each other so well, and we played and practiced a few times together,” Schuettler said. “We both know each other’s games pretty well.”
From those tournaments, Schuettler enjoys a 2-0 record against Russell in ATP play. The wins also marked the beginning of Schuettler's rise into the top 10.
Nearly a decade later, he said he does not mind bearing the title as the oldest player on the Tour.
"I've been on the Tour for a couple years, and it doesn't really matter," he said. "I cannot hide my age anyways."
The veterans looked as if they were trying their best Monday.
Neither player exhibited any slowing from age in his first-round victory -- not that such a fact stopped Russell from joking about it in the locker room afterward. He approached Schuettler with a congratulations and a suggestion that the elder statesmen deserved extra accolades for earning their victories in old age.
“I embrace it,” Russell said. “I look at it as a positive that, knock on wood, I can continue to play, be successful, be healthy and play the sport I love.”
For Russell, that may last as long as two or three more years while Schuettler expects to play another year before he retires.
Tennis, both agreed, has undergone quite an evolution during their tenures.
“It has changed a lot,” Schuettler said. “I’m not that tall, but now you have guys coming up like [John] Isner who are taller and serving much better and moving well.”
Both players have changed alongside the game, committing themselves to more time in rehabilitation and working with fitness coaches.
“Guys hit the ball harder and much stronger,” Russell said. “It’s a change, and we’ve got to be much more physical.”
In a few years, Schuettler will recommit himself to academia. Russell is considering business, among other interests, for his future.
For the time being, both still are known for their physicality and aggressive play along the baseline, a style that no doubt will continue as long as both can successfully employ it.
“Michael and me, at some point we have to stop because the younger guys take over,” Schuettler said.
“So far we are doing well, and we are able to compete in the big tournaments. So I don’t really mind being a little bit older.”
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