Rafa Nadal reached the final of the Shanghai Masters when Feliciano Lopez retired on Saturday, the second evening in a row when the top seeded Spaniard’s opponent had to withdraw injured.
World number two Nadal was coasting at 6-1 3-0 when his compatriot Lopez, struggling with an ankle injury, became the ninth player to fail to finish a match at the $3.24 million tournament.
The 23-year-old will face Nikolay Davydenko in Sunday’s final after the Russian sprang an upset on second seed Novak Djokovic with a 4-6 6-4 7-6 victory.
Nadal, who benefited from Ivan Ljubicic’s withdrawal to reach the last four, has not played a tour final since May’s Madrid Masters as knee and abdominal injuries disrupted his season.
“I was playing well today,” he told reporters. “I’m in the final which is very good news for me. I’m very happy, it’s my first final since my comebcak from injury.”
Lopez found an ace to help him win the opening game of the match but from then on Nadal dominated, winning the next six in a row and claiming the first set when his opponent went long.
The world number 41 turned his right ankle on that point and the match was over as a contest, Lopez bringing it to its inevitable conclusion 21 minutes later.
Lopez’s retirement can only fuel the debate about the length of the men’s season, which was sparked on Monday when Andy Roddick branded it ‘ridiculous’ and said it threatened to shorten the careers of the top players.
Sixth seed Davydenko lost twice to Djokovic at the Masters Cup here last season but was an altogether different proposition on Saturday.
The 28-year-old kept Djokovic under pressure throughout the three-hour contest before running away with the deciding tiebreak 7-1.
“The match today was long and heavy,” Davydenko told reporters. “This was really difficult all match. I was lucky, he was lucky. In the tiebreak, I was more lucky.”
Serbian Djokovic, who 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.
“I’m disappointed because I think I played a great match but overall these two weeks have been great for me,” said the 22-year-old, who will move back to world number three next week.
After a string of errors gave Djokovic the first set, Davydenko mixed things up more in the second and earned his reward when he evened the match up with an ace.
The Russian kept up his pressure on his opponent’s serve in the decider without ever making the breakthrough but was 5-0 up in the tiebreak before his opponent registered a point.
He claimed victory with a crushing forehand winner to take his place in his fourth final of the year, two weeks after winning his third title of the season at the Malaysian Open.