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MELBOURNE, Australia – When you’re long retired and down in Australia to play a little hit-and-giggle tennis, the routine changes.

No need to spend an hour in the gym, actually MOVE during a warmup, or otherwise fuss too much.

So when good mates Marat Safin and Marcos Baghdatis arrived on Court 16 Thursday morning, an hour ahead of their match on Rod Laver Arena against Lleyton Hewitt (who probably WAS in the gym) and Mark Philippoussis, it was low stress.

No coaches. No entourage. Just two dudes and a can of new balls rocking up to have a 20-minute hit.

Here’s what it looked like.

We can report that Baghdatis – who looks in fighting form compared to just a few years ago when the Molson Muscle was creeping in – did at least stretch his quads for, okay, 15 seconds.

We think we spotted Safin touching his toes. Okay, maybe once.

The difference between then and now is that now, if a practice ball requires their opponent to move more than a step or two, there’s a “Sorry!” involved.

But when you watch them still hitting the ball so sweetly, it reminds you of just what a powerful tool muscle memory is.

Safin, of course, is on tour with Andrey Rublev and hits with him often. So that helps. And Baghdatis has an academy, so no doubt he hits with the kids all the time (he even invited Safin to Cyprus for an exhibition during the off-season).

Still, it’s beautiful to watch.

Taking it to the match court

In the end, Baghdatis at least changed his Lacoste shirt to the match polo before going on Rod Laver Arena.

Safin, from the look of it, wore the same T-shirt (he wears this one so often, we’d bet sometimes he forgets and sleeps in it) and the same ratty wristband he wore for the warmup.

In the end, it might not have been the right routine. Hewitt and Philippoussis beat them 6-4, 6-2.