Roger a la King says Bye-bye Blake

Roger Federer isn’t going to be dethroned easily as the king of the courts waved good-bye to James Blake in three sets to set up a semi-final match with Novak Djokovic.

After shutting out Blake to the tune of 7-5, 7-6, 6-4 in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, Roger will be one step away from being in the championships. And speaking of that one step, Djokovic impressed me last night. Im-pressed me. The kid can play some tennis, ya know?

And he’s just confident enough – maybe even just enough cocky – that he can keep somewhat of a brain about him. Roger leads the series 4-1. Djokovic’s only victory over the Fed Express (I’m not sure how I like this name Roger has been given, but I thought I’d give it a test drive.) came at the Tennis Masters Montreal tourney in August.

Djokovic has ousted Lleyton Hewitt and David Ferrer in straight sets and really seems to be on top of his game – we’ll see what happens in the semi-finals. I don’t know that he has much of a shot, but I’m not going to pull the box out from underneath the kid’s feet until the very end.