Rafael Nadal reached the final of the Shanghai Masters when Feliciano Lopez retired yesterday, the second evening in a row when the top seeded Spaniard's opponent has withdrawn injured.

World number two Nadal was coasting at 6-1 3-0 when his compatriot Lopez, who had a foot injury, became the ninth player to fail to finish a match at the $3.24 million tournament.

The Australian Open champion will face Nikolay Davydenko in the 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 from their quarter-final to reach the last four, has not played a tour final since May's Madrid Masters.

Sixth seed Davydenko lost twice to Djokovic at the Masters Cup last season, the second in the final, but was an altogether different proposition this year. The 28-year-old kept Djokovic under pressure throughout the three-hour contest before running away with the deciding tiebreak, taking it 7-1.

"The match 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 will move back to world number three this week and 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.

"There was no problem (in the tiebreak). He played too good."

Djokovic has already qualified for next month's World Tour Finals and yesterday's win improved Davydenko's chance of joining him in London by taking one of the three spots still up for grabs.

"It's good coming here to the final, to get some points and try and finish in the top 10," said Davydenko, who has reached the season-ending tour championship for the last four years.

"Don't think about London, not yet."