Federer unconcerned about new generation

MELBOURNE (Reuters) - Roger Federer will play one of the new generation when he takes on Novak Djokovic in the Australian Open semi-finals but the world number one says he has bigger fish to fry.

The Swiss top seed ousted American 12th seed James Blake 7-5 7-6 6-4 in the quarter-finals on Wednesday but dismissed any suggestion that the younger generation, led by Djokovic, were preying on his mind.

"I'm looking at history, looking at my own game," Federer told reporters after reaching his 15th straight grand slam semi-final.

"I'm number one in the world, so I'm more concentrated on that than the youngsters. There's plenty of guys around who are also older than the young guys who are good."

Only two of the top 10 are older than the 26-year-old Federer, and the Swiss admitted there was a growing group of players coming up behind him.

"I always said there was a great group behind me," he said.

"Rafa (Nadal) obviously leading the way, with Novak (Djokovic) now. Incredible great number of juniors behind me, (Tomas) Berdych, (Marcos) Baghdatis.

"All these guys can play great tennis. It's a matter of putting it together in the majors. And Rafa has been able to do that on many big occasions, and now Novak, too.

"It's what I expected. (Andy) Murray, as well, is coming up. (Jo-Wilfried) Tsonga, the same thing. This time around there's three really young guys in the semis, except older guys like Andy (Roddick) or (Lleyton) Hewitt or something."

Federer lost to Djokovic in the final of the Masters Series event in Montreal last year but beat the Serbian in the U.S. Open final.

Friday's semi-final, Federer said, would simply be about who performs best on the day.

"It's going to be a matter of form, who's going to come out of the blocks better and after that who's going to come back on the other guy," Federer said.

"It's going to be interesting to see, who chooses the right tactics, those sort of things."

(Editing by Ed Osmond)