Some of us are getting old waiting for Roger Federer to live up to our declarations of his imminent tennis demise.

The man will be 33 in August, which (historically) has been too old to accomplish much, in tennis.

And since the days of his absolute domination of the men’s game in the middle of the past decade — No. 1 for 237 consecutive weeks from 2004 into 2008 — he has been nudged out of the top spot in the world rankings by Rafael Nadal, then by Novak Djokovic.

And the start of 2014 has seen him drift down to No. 8 in the world, his lowest ranking in more than a decade.

In the past four years he was won only one grand slam event, in 16 opportunities, winning at Wimbledon in 2012.

And he is in the UAE this week, in Dubai, to be specific, and as the No. 4 seed in a tournament not exactly brimming with elite players, he was set for a semifinal collision with Novak Djokovic.

That was today. And Federer won, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, in an enthralling match that had a bunch of profoundly exciting points.

[Update, March 1: Federer defeated Tomas Berdych 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to win the Dubai title, his sixth.]

So, no. Roger apparently is not going away any time soon.

Federer is enormously popular, of course. People like his class, his style, his unflappable demeanor, and the fact that he has been a great champion.

He is particularly popular in Dubai, where he maintains a residence. When he has played at the Aviation Club, this week, the stadium has been packed. And when he is done, half the crowd tends to leave.

The crowd was ecstatic tonight when he fought back to beat Djokovic, who had been beating him like a drum the past few years.

Roger is not quite done yet. He plays Tomas Berdych in the final tomorrow, and a Federer victory would mean his sixth championship in Dubai, which would enormously please his fans and thoroughly confound those of us who are sure he is going to fall to pieces … any minute now.

I have written, in The National, and more than once, and as far back as 2011, that the best Federer could hope for, from that moment forward, was carefully manage a steady decline, and that seemed to be in progress the past few months, as he slid to No. 8 and went out of Wimbledon in the second round last year and exited the U.S. Open in the fourth.

But he has never conceded he is losing a step to age. He has never said that he just can’t keep up with the crushing pace routinely shown by the Nadal-Djokovic-Murray cyborgs.

This week, he suggested he might play another 10 years.

At this point, I wouldn’t put it past him.