Shanghai, October 17, 2009

Top seed Rafa Nadal has moved into the final of the Shanghai Masters Series tournament tonight after his opponent (and one of his best friends on tour), Feliciano Lopez, became the ninth player to retire from the injury-plagued event.

"I was a little bit lucky yesterday," said Rafa, who made the semis when Ivan Ljubicic retired after two sets on Friday. "Today I was winning but it's never nice to win like this, especially against a close friend like Feliciano". 

"I just wish both players a speedy recovery. I'm just happy to be in the final - my first after the injury comeback."

At various points in the first set, Lopez was limping around, bothered greatly by his right foot.  He grimaced in pain at several points in the first set before needing an injury time out between sets and receiving treatment. 

Lopez went out and gave it a bit of a try in the second set but his range of motion was clearly too limited to compete in this match, let alone make a comeback.

“It hurts to put my foot on the ground, I can’t walk,” said ‘Feli’ to Rafa when they met at the net after the match.

Top seed Rafa takes a 4-2 career lead into the final against Russian Nikolay Davydenko, whom he defeated most recently earlier this season in the semi-finals of the Barcelona Open Banco Sabadell.

ORDER OF PLAY: Their match is scheduled second on center court not before 4:30pm (local time). 

Vamos Rafa!