Choo-choo!

The Fed Express is rolling now. Another service game is wrapped up at the speed of the Tokyo-Kyoto special, for the loss of just one point, and it is getting warm in the engine-room.

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I think Yen-Hsun Lu's defences have just gone the way of that dam.

After creaking, but holding out, Lu is broken to love. It had been coming.

A couple of ladies make their way to their seats, weighed down by a handbag over each arm. If you are double-parked with baggage it is time to think about a nice sensible rucksack surely.

They have barely touched buttock to seat in the time it takes Federer to hold to love. That one took less than a minute.

Oooh. A backhand down the line, as saucy as a seaside postcard, from Roger Federer brings up a break point at 30-40.

The line judge had to sway right to avoid the rubber bullet as the Fed's stroke suddenly got big on him.

We'll miss those bits of nonchalant brilliance when he is gone. Lu probably wouldn't miss it for the rest of this match though. He uncorks a pearler of a forehand down the line to see of the danger, but is being stretched all over the shop.

Towel please.

But Roger Federer could wipe down with a napkin.

A minimum of effort expended as he bags up his opening service game to 15.

Federer loses the first point, but then feathers the accelerator to move to 40-15 with a chip and charge to the net, setting Lu the challenge of passing him and watching his opponent come up well short.

Lu, a quarter-finalist at Wimbledon five years ago, shows some pluck though and sees off those two break points. And another two from deuce to dodge the early break.

Yen-Hsun Lu, ranked 47th in the world, will tee us off.

Roger Federer, glowing in fluorescent yellow, won the toss and chose to receive.

Image source, EPA

Those are the sort of numbers that might usually add up to pipe, slippers and retirement.

But Roger Federer is still doing his soft-shoe shuffle around the world's biggest tennis stages.

This morning it is Yen-Hsun Lu who is on the opposite end of the court as his royal Swissness gets his Australian Open campaign underway on Rod Laver Arena.

A pretty full house to catch Federer while they still can and the players are knocking up.

Image source, Reuters

Thirty-three years on the clock.

Four kids at home.

17 Grand Slam titles on the mantelpiece.

(I'm presuming a man who has won more than £54m in prizemoney has a pretty big fireplace)