Shanghai:
Nikolay Davydenko reached his fourth final of the year on Saturday after outlasting second-seeded Novak Djokovic 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (1) at the Shanghai Masters.
The sixth-seeded Davydenko will play the winner of the all-Spanish semifinal between top-seeded Rafael Nadal and Feliciano Lopez.
In a hard-fought match that lasted more than three hours, Davydenko dominated the final tiebreaker, racing out to a 5-0 lead before sealing the win.
Djokovic had saved all three break points he faced in the first set, before breaking Davydenko with his second set point when the Russian smacked a crosscourt backhand wide.
Davydenko then took control of the second by breaking for a 4-3 lead when Djokovic's forehand sailed long at 15-40. The Russian had two set points on Djokovic's serve in the ninth game but couldn't convert either. Instead, he served it out in the next game with two aces.
Davydenko lost twice to Djokovic on this court last year during the season-ending Tennis Masters Cup last year - a round-robin match and the final.
Davydenko has won all three finals he has played this year, in Hamburg, Umag and the Kuala Lumpur tournament two weeks ago.