It’s been a long week. More on that another time. For now…

From the land down under

In my US Open recap a few months ago, I wrote that Djokovic’s time is coming, and coming soon. The gap between Federer and everyone else was closing fast. Nadal already owns him at the French, and almost pulled off the upset at Wimbledon. And Djokovic finished strong last year and, in my opinion, was headed for a grand slam title in 2008.

He’s not there yet - he still has one match to go - but he took a significant step today in not only knocking Federer out of the Australian Open semis, but doing so in straight sets, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6 (5). That’s a big one, and there seems to be somewhat of a changing of the guard going on right now, considering Jo-Wilfried Tsonga’s straight set win over Nadal in the other semi yesterday. No Federer-Nadal final here. No Federer. No Nadal. But Djokovic’s time may have come. Tsonga - if he plays like he has been in this tournament - will be no pushover. I’ve seen him once and he was looking very good, and considering Nadal’s post-match comments (”I played fine, but he was unbelievable”) he was pretty impressive there, although I didn’t see that one.

I look forward to the men’s final Saturday night. It should be a pretty good one, and while I’ve grown to like Tsonga watching him play in this tournament and last year, I hope for the breakthrough for Djokovic. He’s my favorite player right now, and I hope to see him holding the trophy down under. We’ll see.

“I’ve created a monster that I need to win every tournament,” Federer said. “Still, the semifinals isn’t bad.”

Federer is right, of course. His success and dominance of the men’s game in recent years has caused us all to be shocked when he loses in a grand slam (well, except for the French.) Yes, it’s a little surprising that he’s not in the final. It’s been a while since he lost in a non-French grand slam - three years to be exact, at the 2005 Australian Open, where he also lost in the semifinals. He’d won two straight Australian’s, and has won five straight at Wimbledon and four straight at the US Open. That’s pretty amazing.

Reaching the semifinal before losing indeed is not that bad. It’s good he recognizes that, because with the rise of younger players like Djokovic, Nadal and Tsonga, that may become a more regular occurrence.

But he’s not done yet. This may be a signal that his dominance is beginning to fade. The gap was closing last year, and with this loss, his grand slam titles will likely be more difficult to achieve. But he’s not Bjorn Borg. He’s not going anywhere. He’ll be back with a vengeance at the French, where he’s been owned, and at Wimbledon, which he owns.

The women’s final will be on ESPN tonight, in what may be the best-looking women’s final in the history of tennis, when Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic face each other. It should be a great match, too.

Duke wins, Tech flops

Okay, I am constantly hearing people complain about Duke players “flopping” in attempts to draw charges or other fouls. And, yes, it happens, and much of the criticism is deserved. Greg Paulus is among the worst, and some of his are simply embarrassing. Taking charges has always been a part of Duke’s game, and sometimes they try a little too hard to convince the officials of something that’s not really there. That’s bound to happen, and they’re bound to look stupid on such occasions. They’re not the only ones, but like so many other things, it always seems to be highlighted more when it’s Duke.

But nobody on Duke’s team - past or present - has anything on Virginia Tech’s Deron Washington. His performance in last night’s Duke win at Blacksburg was painful to watch. (Some of it is here, but there was much more.) I’ve never seen someone throw himself around the floor and flail his arms about the way Washington did, at times when there wasn’t even contact. It was stunning. I don’t care for Len Elmore, who was calling the game with Mike Patrick, but I had to agree with his assessment. After a while, as Elmore pointed out, Washington was not getting some legitimate calls because he’d been so theatrical for much of the game. All of his flopping and flailing came back to bite him in the ass. And he deserved it. Hopefully, for Virginia Tech’s sake, he’ll learn something from this.

I would also say this, though, in Washington’s defense. Despite the kick to Lee Melchionni’s face two years ago, I don’t think Washington was doing anything intentionally dirty on a couple of calls last night. First, the tripping of Kyle Singler. I thought Washington was upset and reacting to what he thought was a foul (which clearly wasn’t) as they ran back down court. I thought their feet got tangled up and that’s all. They will sometimes call that, sometimes not. But I thought the intentional foul on Washington was unwarranted. Again, had he not been so theatrical at the moment and many times prior to that, it might have just been a foul, or even a no-call. I think he was angry at the officials for the no-call, but I don’t think there was anything intentional about the contact with Singler.

The other was the undercut of DeMarcus Nelson. This one was less clear, but I also thought Washington was not being malicious. After multiple replays, it appeared to me that he was actually trying to get out of Nelson’s way, but unfortunately moved under him enough to cause the contact and the foul. Nelson was hot, and I can understand that, as it easily could have caused an injury. And I could be wrong, but I don’t think Washington was trying to do anything there.

Up next for Duke is Maryland. If they could pull of the road win, they could have a good shot at going to Chapel Hill in a couple of weeks still unbeaten in the ACC. But, Maryland, while not having looked that impressive for most of the year, did go into Chapel Hill and win last week. Plus, they’re always up for Duke, especially at home. So this may be the young Devils toughest test of the season. It should be a good one.