Nikolay Davydenko grabbed the last semifinal spot at the ATP World Tour Finals by beating Robin Soderling 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-3 Friday, knocking defending champion Novak Djokovic out of the tournament.
Davydenko, Djokovic and Soderling all finished with two wins in the round-robin phase, but the third-ranked Serb was eliminated on sets. Soderling had already secured advancement and finished at the top of Group B.
Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal 7-6 (5), 6-3 earlier Friday, handing the Spaniard his third straight loss at the tournament.
Davydenko will face Roger Federer in Saturday’s semifinal match. Soderling, who entered the tournament as an alternate after Andy Roddick pulled out because of injury, will take on U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro later in the day in a matchup of big hitters.
Davydenko, who reached the final of the lucrative season-ending tournament last year, broke Soderling for the first time to take a 4-2 lead in the decider and converted his second match point when the Swede missed an easy forehand at the net with a wide-open court.
The Russian, who double-faulted on the first match point, reacted with a stunned look of disbelief before letting out a celebratory yell.
In a match that featured plenty of big serves but few memorable rallies, Soderling was up a mini-break at 4-3 in the first-set tiebreaker but lost four points in a row. The Russian converted his first set point with an overhead smash.
Soderling, who reached his first Grand Slam final this year at the French Open, slipped when running to the net while serving at 4-3 in the second set and fell hard to the ground. He got up seemingly unscathed and later got the first break of the match to go up 5-4 before serving out the set.
Davydenko has struggled with a sore left leg this week and said he did not practice on Thursday, opting to get treatment on the tight muscle instead. Now he has little time to recover ahead of Saturday’s early semifinal match against Federer.
Nadal struggled for the third match in a row and finished with nearly three times as many unforced errors as winners—35 to 12. He needed medical treatment on his lower back at 2-1 in the second set, then was broken in the next game.
Nadal had broken back twice in the first set to reach the tiebreaker, where he shanked a couple of forehands and quickly fell behind 6-2. He saved three set points before sending a forehand wide.
Nadal leaves the tournament without having won a single set, and is now on a four-match losing streak after falling to Djokovic in the semifinals of the Paris Masters this month. It’s his worst streak since finishing 2003 with consecutive first-round losses in Basel, Madrid and Lyon and then starting 2004 with a loss to Thierry Ascione in Chennai, India.
Djokovic entered the tournament on a 10-match winning streak after taking back-to-back titles in Basel and Paris, but said his recent successes have taken a toll.
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