Shanghai, October 18, 2009

Rafa Nadal is one win away from an ATP World Tour-best sixth tour-level title of the season after reaching the final of the Shanghai ATP Masters 1000 tournament where he will play against Nikolay Davydenko this afternoon at 4:30pm (local Shanghai time).

Yesterday’s victory wasn’t exactly the kind to be celebrated after his opponent (and one of his best friends on tour), Feliciano Lopez, became the ninth player to retire from the injury-plagued tournament when he was down 1-6, 0-3 .

"Today I was winning but it's never nice to win like this, especially against a close friend like Feliciano... I just wish both [Feli and Ljubicic] a speedy recovery”, said Rafa at his press conference referring to Ivan Ljubicic who also pulled out of the tournament during their quarter-final match.

"I was playing well today," he continued. "I'm in the final which is very good news for me. I'm very happy, it's my first final since my comeback from injury."

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.

“He's playing very well,” assessed Rafa. “I saw his match today against Novak [Djokovic], and he did unbelievable, playing with a lot of rhythm, playing unbelievable winners and very good points at a lot of intensity. So it’s going to be a really tough match, so I will [try to] play my best without making mistakes. If not, it’s going to be impossible. I know that.”

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

Vamos Rafa!