Russian Nikolay Davydenko sprang an upset on second seed Novak Djokovic to reach the final of the Shanghai Masters with a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 victory on Saturday.
The 28-year-old sixth seed lost twice to Djokovic at the Masters Cup in Shanghai last year but was an altogether different proposition this time.
He kept his 22-year-old opponent under pressure throughout the three-hour contest before running away with the deciding tiebreak, taking it 7-1, to set up a meeting with top seed Rafa Nadal, who reached the final when compatriot Feliciano Lopez retired, the second evening in a row when the top seeded Spaniard's opponent has withdrawn injured..
Serbian Djokovic, who will move back to world number three next week and was chasing back-to-back titles after his win in Beijing last Sunday, left the court dejected after falling to his first defeat in his last 11 matches in China.
The first set was a tight affair mostly contested from the baseline and it went with serve until the 10th game, when a string of poor first serves combined with four unforced errors gifted the first set to Djokovic.
Davydenko mixed things up more in the second set and his hustling earned him a break, then two set points only for Djokovic to save them with a glorious whipped backhand and an ace.
The world number eight was not to be denied, however, and he evened up the match by serving out to love, rounding out the set with his fourth ace.
The Russian kept up his pressure on his opponent's serve in the decider without ever making the breakthrough, Djokovic hanging on to save for 3-2 after a marathon 10-minute game.
A brilliant lob at full stretch gave Djokovic a 6-5 lead but Davydenko raced through his next service and was 5-0 up in the tiebreak before his opponent registered a point.
Davydenko had the whiff of an upset in his nostrils by now and he stood firm to reach his fourth final of the year with a crushing forehand winner.
World number two Nadal was coasting at 6-1, 3-0 when his Lopez, who had a foot injury, became the ninth player to fail to finish a match at the $3.24 million tournament.
Nadal, who benefited from Ivan Ljubicic's withdrawal from their quarter-final to reach the last four, has not played a tour final since May's Madrid Masters.
