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Stan Wawrinka and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga snarl, John McEnroe trills

Though 2017 is fast becoming the retro Australian Open, this was winding the clock back a little too far. Between first and second sets on Rod Laver arena on Tuesday, Stan Wawrinka and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga snarled at one another from their chairs like schoolboys. Their exchange was in French, but the strength and depth of it might be divined from Tsonga's opening gambit: "You looking at me?"

So it went, gobfuls between mouthfuls, no translation necessary. Reportedly, their bad blood goes back to a France-Switzerland Davis Cup tie several years ago. This renewal of hostilities excited one man. "We need to see more of that out there," trilled John McEnroe.

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Wawrinka coasts into Melbourne Park semis

Stan Wawrinka has advanced to the Australian Open semi-finals with a straight-sets win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, while in the women's draw Venus Williams is through to the last four.

To a point, their contretemps did enliven a worthy but mostly dull match, in which Tsonga faded away to straight-sets defeat, the snap at Wawrinka his most aggressive act on the day. To give you an idea of the lullaby atmosphere, not an on-court peep was heard out of either of two normally demonstrative players until the third-last game. Two hours without even one "C'mon"? Come on!

Partly, this was the work of Wawrinka, the quintessential late bloomer. "I don't care how I play," he said beforehand. "I want to win." At least there was his backhand to watch. He hits it with the action of a flasher ripping open his raincoat, and the effect is usually just as confronting for his opponent. It was too much for Tsonga.

Partly, it was down to Tsonga's timidity. Throughout, he battled Wawrinka from the baseline, the pair of them coming to the net only for drop shots or mishits. For Wawrinka, this was a case of sticking to a good thing. For Tsonga, it was an instance of doing the same thing repeatedly and naively expecting a different result. On generally faster courts in this tournament, examples abound of the gains to be made by boldness.

Tsonga played a final here, nine years ago, in the middle Federer era. Momentarily, he might have imagined himself with a role in the revivalist theme of this tournament. Instead, he looked like an old-timer, though he and Wawrinka are the same age. Even as the game goes back, it moves on.

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Still, there were moments. Once, Wawrinka smashed a ball straight at Tsonga, semi-accidentally. McEnroe, scornful of Tsonga's lead-up play, said: "Jo deserved that."

Later, Wawrinka crashed a dead ball narrowly over the head of an unsighted ballboy, prompting gasps. This was millimetres away from an international incident. Two days previously, an Italian junior had been disqualified from the girls' tournament for hitting a ballboy. If the ballboy had been struck now, authorities would have had to choose between booting out a star or applying a double standard.

There was no more friction; the gap had grown too wide for any further rubbing up the wrong way. Cordially, they went their separate ways, Tsonga to the exit, Wawrinka to a semi-final, his eighth in a major, all since turning 28. His tally includes three major wins, in different events, leaving only Wimbledon for a Stan slam. Here, he stands to reprise his first final and win, over Rafael Nadal in 2014. As the band gets back together in both draws, he is Ringo Starr, joining the Beatles late and making the most of it. And, it has to be admitted, there is a bit of the guitar-smasher in him.

Starr was the drummer. So is Wawrinka. The low key of this encounter – a major quarter-final – after all, was most plausibly attributable to its status as a curtain-raiser. Roger Federer, win, lose or draw, would be the main act. Wawrinka knew it. When done, Wawrinka thanked the crowd for the support, hoped to keep a sliver of it if indeed he met Federer in a semi, and said how pleasing it was to see Federer back and playing so well. So the ritual homage was paid.

As for the earlier bust-up, for Wawrinka, it was over before it began. "It's a tennis game. Relax," he said to Tsonga by way of dismissal in the moment. As on court, Tsonga was without an answer. "We just spoke about things that I think is only between him and me," he said, "and that's it." Like the match, it was already forgotten.