Thursday's women's semi finals at the Australian Open loom as a battle of youth against experience, despite Maria Sharapova's insistence that she is not ready to be put into the veteran's category just yet.
At 24, Sharapova is less than three years older than her semi-final opponent Petra Kvitova, but a look her tennis odometer would reveal that she has the miles in her legs of a player many years older.
Kim Clijsters, who plays 22-year-old Victoria Azarenka, is the oldest of the four at 28, but she had two years out of the game to freshen herself up, during which time she became a mum and rediscovered her love for the sport she had played since she was a kid.
As a measure of comparison, Sharapova won her first Grand Slam over 12 months before Clijsters won her first at the US Open in 2005.
She has played 516 WTA Tour matches in her career, as compared to 628 from Clijsters, putting them in the same class in terms of experience.
"I always say that everyone achieves different things at different times in their career. Everyone has a different path to their success. Not one person is the same," Sharapova said when asked if she felt different to other 24 year-olds on tour, such as Sara Errani, who Kvitova beat on Wednesday.
"Some people start playing tennis later. Some become professional later. Some play juniors, some don't. I mean, it doesn't really matter. I think it's maybe more of a story in a way."
"I mean, I personally have taken the only route I've known, and I guess everyone else has their own ways of developing and achieving this and that in different ages."
Clijsters has already confirmed that this year is likely to be her last on tour, but despite having nine years of elite level tennis, the end is not something Sharapova is ready to contemplate yet.
She said when she was 18, she wouldn't have thought of extending her career past 25, but now it's 30 which seems that number off in the distance.
"I'm sure when I was 17 years old and someone said, You'll be playing for another eight years, it would be like, really, you're not going to see me at a press conference at 25 years old," she said.
"But years go on. I missed a year in my career. I didn't play that year. I've said this, just before the tournament, a few weeks before, I woke up and I was just so happy to be going back on the court."
"I felt so fresh, full of energy, just with a really good perspective. Times change, obviously. I see myself playing this sport for many more years because it's something that gives me the most pleasure in my life."
"I think it helps when you know you're good at something, and you can always improve it. It obviously helps with the encouragement."
It is certainly a marked change of attitude for Sharapova, who looked 12 months ago, like a young woman with the weight of the world on her shoulders.
Unlike then, instead of batting back questions about her longevity with all the subtlety of one of her forehands, she was relishing the banter when asked if she would go as long as Jimmy Connors.
"I can guarantee right now you're not going to see me here