It will have passed most by, but the Australian Open final was decided on Monday night – with an Australian winner no less.

With grace and a little less speed than in previous years, Robert Fahey triumphed over his English challenger Ben Williams 6-3 6-5 6-4.

However, the game was not tennis, but real tennis, the less glamourous precursor to the modern sport.

Similar to tennis in most ways, real tennis players use assymetrical wooden racquets, harder balls and play on inside cours off walls and tiers.

With less than 1000 Australian participants, the sport’s history – real tennis boasts the oldest sporting world championship dating back to 1740 – is possibly brighter than its future.

Sixteen starters began the 2014 open, held down the road at Richmond’s Royal Melbourne Tennis Club, with Fahey, 45, adding the title to an astonishing list of conquests.

Fahey’s 11 straight world championships dating back to 1994 makes him unquestionably the best player to have ever played the sport.

He has no plans to retire yet – and will defend his world title in Richmond this May.

With a format that produces one challenger to play him in a best of 13 sets final, Fahey is preparing for a tough fight.

“I’ve played both potential challengers in the past six months and lost to both of them,” Fahey said.

“But it’s a serious athletic combative situation and I’ll be ready.”

The Hobart-born player returns to his London home base this week to start training for the decider, which comes slightly tougher in his fifth decade.

“I’m as fit as I’ve always been but you slow down and your reactions change, your eyesight changes and the rest of it,” he said.

“But reading the court, what the ball is going to do, you never lose any of that and that’s a key part of it.”